Investigating the genomic landscape in novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) genomes to identify non-synonymous mutations for use in diagnosis and drug design

Manish Tiwari; Divya Mishra

To mitigate the severity of 2019-nCoV, researchers around the world are trying to develop antibodies and vaccine against this deadly virus. The problem with the delay in antiviral medication is superficial understanding of the virus. A dire need is to unravel the mutations in the viral genome and concomitant amino acid changes occurring presumably due to varying geographical location or upon interaction with the diverse human immune system. Various reports compared the SARS, MERS, bat and pangolin coronaviruses and paved way for significant findings, still leaving a lacunae in terms of the variations in the hCoV genomes and comparison with the previous available viruses resources. The present study deals with the mutations in the hCoV genomes and resulting change in amino acids.