Characterization of the S2M G15U mutation associated with the SARS-CoV-2 delta variant

The virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has spread worldwide with millions of deaths and hundreds of millions of infections since its first case was reported in December 2019. Although the development of vaccines has mitigated the effects of the virus, variants are still being produced and transmitted, such as the prominent and more infectious Delta variant. Like other coronaviruses, and three other viral families, SARS-CoV-2 contains a highly conserved 41-nucleotide sequence, the stem-loop II motif (s2m).