HYDERABAD: The variant of concern, Omicron, has now three siblings – one up from two sub-lineages found final week.
According to Phylogenetic Assignment of Named Global Outbreak Lineages (PANGOLIN) that assigns lineages beneath ‘Pango lineage’ system to varied viruses together with the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19, the third outlier of Omicron was discovered from a pattern collected from England on December 3. The new outlier of Omicron variant is quickly named England/MILK-2D24AC9/2021.
Dr Vinod Scaria of Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), New Delhi, confirmed the event by tweeting late on Sunday concerning the new outlier of Omicron lineage with some shared mutations.
Omicron variant or B.1.1.529 cut up into two sub-lineages BA.1 and BA.2 earlier this month. These two variants have some shared mutations, in addition to some mutations which can be distinctive to them. “A new diverse genome has appeared within the B.1.1.529 lineage that has all of the shared mutations of B.1.1.529, some of the mutations unique to BA.1 and some unique to BA.2 plus a few of its own,” PANGOLIN introduced in its web site.
It added it appears possible the brand new Omicron outlier is a further circulating member of B.1.1.529 variety and recombination has occurred in its historical past. It additionally stated it “may have mutated prior to emergence of BA.1 clade based on pattern of mutations.” It stated, “as a single genome it doesn’t yet require a lineage designation and at the moment it will be classified as a member of Omicron”. Experts say although Omicron has been spreading quicker than earlier variants, most instances are delicate.