| dc.description.abstract | Counts for SARS-CoV-2 associated infections and fatalities are on the rise globally even in regions which con-
tained the spread momentarily. The pattern of infections has been found to be controlled by the distinctive
selection pressures exerted by fluctuating environmental nature and hosts. A total of 410 whole-genome se-
quences submitted by the South Asian countries were retrieved from the GISAID database and analyzed to assess
the impact and pattern of mutations in this region. Most common and frequent mutations in the South Asian
countries are 241C > T, 3037C > T, 14408C > T, and 23403A > G and about 85% SNPs are localized in ORF1ab,
spike protein, and nucleocapsid. Among the identified mutations, the proportion of missense type (54.17%) was
highest, followed by the synonymous (41.66%) and the non-coding types (4.17%). While analyzing transmission
source in terms of geolocation, the largest clustered group from the South Asian countries was based on the G-
clade (D614G) (81.7%; 335/410 samples), tracing the inception and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 infections in
the South Asian countries from European regions. Phylogenetic analysis also revealed that the South Asian
strains are highly related to the South American and European strains. We found that G-clade mutations are more
prevalent (96.19%) in the samples of Bangladesh which were also prevalent in the European isolates. Surpris-
ingly, one missense mutation (1163A > T) in ORF1ab gene became dominant only in Bangladesh (78.8%), which
led to debates regarding effects on the pathogenicity and transmissibility of the virus. Overall, the findings of this
study highlight the frequently mutated SARS-CoV-2 variants among the COVID-19 patients in the South Asian
countries which might ease containment of the disease in this region through investigating the virulence
reducing factors as the identified mutations are strongly correlated with low infection and mortality rate. | en_US |
