An evolutionary analysis of the SARS-CoV-2 genomes from the countries in the same meridian

Mastriani, Emilio; Rakov, Alexey V.; Liu, Shu-Lin

In the current study we analyzed the genomes of SARS-CoV-2 strains isolated from Italy, Sweden, Congo (countries in the same meridian) and Brazil, as outgroup country. Evolutionary analysis revealed codon 9628 under episodic selective pressure for all four countries, suggesting it as a key site for the virus evolution. Belonging to the P0DTD3 (Y14_SARS2) uncharacterized protein 14, further investigation has been conducted showing the codon mutation as responsible for the helical modification in the secondary structure. According to the predictions done, the codon is placed into the more ordered region of the gene (41-59) and close the area acting as transmembrane (54-67), suggesting its involvement into the attachment phase of the virus. The predicted structures of P0DTD3 mutated and not confirmed the importance of the codon to define the protein structure and the ontological analysis of the protein emphasized that the mutation enhances the binding probability.