NOVEL RT-qPCR ASSAYS ENABLE RAPID DETECTION AND DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN SARS-COV-2 OMICRON (BA.1) AND BA.2 VARIANTS

In this report, we describe the development and initial validation of novel SARS-COV-2 Omicron-specific reactions that enable the identification of Omicron (BA.1) and BA.2 variants. Mutations that are either shared by both BA.1 and BA.2, or are exclusive for BA.1 or for BA.2 were identified by bioinformatic analysis, and corresponding probe-based quantitative PCR reactions were developed to identify them. We show that multiplex combinations of these reactions provide a single-reaction identification of the sample as BA.1, BA.2, or as non-Omicron SARS-COV-2. All four reactions described herein have a sensitivity of less than ten copies per reaction, and are amendable for multiplexing. The results of this study suggest that the new assays may be useful for testing both clinical and environmental samples to differentiate between these two variants.