SARS-CoV-2 hot-spot mutations are significantly enriched within inverted repeats and CpG island loci

0555382 - BFÚ 2022 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Goswami, Pratik - Bartas, M. - Lexa, M. - Bohalova, Natalia - Volna, A. - Cerven, J. - Cervenova, V. - Pečinka, P. - Špunda, Vladimír - Fojta, Miroslav - Brázda, Václav
SARS-CoV-2 hot-spot mutations are significantly enriched within inverted repeats and CpG island loci.
Briefings in Bioinformatics. Roč. 22, č. 2 (2021), s. 1338-1345. ISSN 1467-5463. E-ISSN 1477-4054
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA18-15548S; GA MŠMT EF15_003/0000477
Institutional support: RVO:68081707
Keywords : dna * rna * methylation * genotype * protein * search
OECD category: Biochemistry and molecular biology; Biochemistry and molecular biology (UEK-B)
Impact factor: 13.994, year: 2021
Method of publishing: Open access
https://academic.oup.com/bib/article/22/2/1338/6042389

SARS-CoV-2 is an intensively investigated virus from the order Nidovirales (Coronaviridae family) that causes COVID-19 disease in humans. Through enormous scientific effort, thousands of viral strains have been sequenced to date, thereby creating a strong background for deep bioinformatics studies of the SARS-CoV-2 genome. In this study, we inspected high-frequency mutations of SARS-CoV-2 and carried out systematic analyses of their overlay with inverted repeat (IR) loci and CpG islands. The main conclusion of our study is that SARS-CoV-2 hot-spot mutations are significantly enriched within both IRs and CpG island loci. This points to their role in genomic instability and may predict further mutational drive of the SARS-CoV-2 genome. Moreover, CpG islands are strongly enriched upstream from viral ORFs and thus could play important roles in transcription and the viral life cycle. We hypothesize that hypermethylation of these loci will decrease the transcription of viral ORFs and could therefore limit the progression of the disease.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0329900