Whole-Genome Analysis Of Sars-Cov-2 Samples Indicate No Tissue Specific Genetic Adaptation Of The Virus In Covid-19 Patients' Upper And Lower Respiratory Tract

Sample panels of SARS-CoV-2 cases were retrospectively whole-genome sequenced. In three individuals, samples of upper and lower respiratory tract resulted in identical sequences suggesting virus stability including the spike protein cleavage site. In a fourth case, low-level intra-host genomic evolution and a unique 5-nucleotide deletion was observed. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)