The genetic variant analyses of SARS-CoV-2 strains; circulating in Bangladesh

Genomic mutation of the virus may impact the viral adaptation to the local environment, their transmission, disease manifestation, and the effectiveness of existing treatment and vaccination. The objectives of this study were to characterize genomic variations, non-synonymous amino acid substitutions, especially in target proteins, mutation events per samples, mutation rate, and overall scenario of coronaviruses across the country. To investigate the genetic diversity, a total of 184 genomes of virus strains sampled from different divisions of Bangladesh with sampling dates between the 10th of May 2020 and the 27^thof June 2020 were analyzed. To date, a total of 634 mutations located along the entire genome resulting in non-synonymous 274 amino acid substitutions in 22 different proteins were detected with nucleotide mutation rate estimated to be 23.715 substitutions per year. The highest non-synonymous amino acid substitutions were observed at 48 different positions of the papain-like protease (nsp3). Although no mutations were found in nsp7, nsp9, nsp10, and nsp11, yet orf1ab accounts for 56% of total mutations. Among the structural proteins, the highest non-synonymous amino acid substitution (at 36 positions) observed in spike proteins, in which 9 unique locations were detected relative to the global strains, including 516E>Q in the boundary of the ACE2 binding region. The most dominated variant G614 (95%) based in spike protein is circulating across the country with co-evolving other variants including L323 (94%) in RNA dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), K203 (82%) and R204 (82%) in nucleocapsid, and F120 (78%) in NSP2. These variants are mostly seen as linked mutations and are part of a haplotype observed in Europe. Data suggest effective containment of clade G strains (4.8%) with sub-clusters GR 82.4%, and GH clade 6.4%.