Tracking SARS-CoV-2 variants in Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

SARS COV-2, the etiology of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, is a positive single-stranded RNA virus which was first identified in the city of Wuhan in 2019. Since its first discovery, several variants of the virus have been reported around the world. Identifying the emerged SARS-CoV-2 variants overtime is important since this could alter the pathogenicity and transmissibility of the virus as well as the efficacy of the vaccine. Here, 34 genome sequence of SARS COV-2 samples, which were collected between Feb. 2021 to Dec. 2021 in Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRG), were compared and analyzed in the spike (S) protein region. The nucleotide sequences were collected from the GISAID database (https://gisaid.org/), and the SARS-COV-2 variants were determined based on the mutations that they carry. Additionally, the frequency of each mutation was determined in the S protein region of the isolates. Overall, 29 mutations were detected in the sequence samples; the majority (44.8%) were located in the Nterminal domain (NTD) of the protein, whereas only 10.3% located in the ribosomal binding domain (RBD). D614G was found in all sequenced strains, followed by 67.6% mutation of P681H. Moreover, seven deletions were found in the NTD of the S protein, with 61.8% of the deletions was occurred at the position Y144. Alpha variants (B.1.1.7) were found to be dominant lineage during the period of this study, accounted for 65% of the sequence samples. Overall, our data support the speedy increase of the SARSCOV-2 genome diversity. Based on our knowledge, this is the first mega sequence analyses of different SARS-COV-2 strains from KRG of Iraq. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]