BioGX in silico analysis of recent update on a surge of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant strains
BioGX continuously monitors the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 variants to ensure our market leading SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR tests will continue to detect emerging variants.
BioGX has completed in silico analysis of over 44,000 complete high coverage Omicron genomes of sublineages belonging to the EG.5, EG.5.1, BA.2.86, and XBB.1.9.1 (including FL.1.5.1) present in the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data (GISAID) EpiCoV™ database as of 31 August, 2023 (Table 1). Sequence analysis of the variant genomes was compared against the SARS-CoV-2 reference genome to identify any mutations within the regions of the nucleocapsid (N-gene), membrane (M-gene), and the coding region of the ORF1a gene (RdRp) targeted by BioGX products. In silico analysis and empirical testing confirmed any nucleotide mutations present at the time of this analysis will not affect the detection capability of the BioGX portfolio of SARS-CoV-2 products.
Table 1. Number of sequences analyzed for each Omicron sublineage available from GISAID as of 31 August 2023.
Omicron Sublineages Analyzed by BioGX |
||||||||
Omicron sublineage | Nextstrain clade | Emergence Location (Date) | No. Sequences Present and Analyzed
(as of 31AUG2023) |
|||||
BA.2.86 | 21L | Denmark (JUL 2023) | 26 | |||||
EG.5 | 23D | Denmark (MAR 2023) | 1,227 | |||||
EG.5.1 | 23F | Indonesia (MAR 2023) | 15,953 | |||||
XBB.1.9.1* | 23D | Singapore (DEC 2022) | 26,816 |
* Including FL.1.5.1