HYDERABAD: As India crossed the milestone of sequencing 1,000 genomes of SARS-CoV-2, Hyderabad-based Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) has come out with an interactive web app named Genome Evolution Analysis Resource for COVID-19 (GEAR-19).
GEAR-2019 gives an interesting peek into the outcome of efforts put in by scientists and researchers from 33 contributing laboratories across the country, for sequencing 1,031 genomes of SARS-CoV-2.
While SARS-CoV-2 causes COVID-19, it is further subdivided into different groups known as ‘clades’. The identification of clades plays an important role in understanding probable origin of a virus infecting a certain population and also in testing drugs.
According to GEAR-2019, most sequenced genomes fall either into the A2a clade (617 genomes) or the A3i clade (249 genomes). GEAR-2019 also gives a timeline of distribution of virus belonging to different clades.
The 1,031 sequenced genomes belong to virus samples collected from patients. From Telangana, 193 virus genomes have been sequenced. Of these, 109 belonged to A2a clade, 78 to A3i and six are unassigned.