Summary

Rodino KG, Peaper DR, Kelly BJ, Bushman F, Marques A, Adhikari H, Tu ZJ, Marrero Rolon R, Westblade LF, Green DA, Berry GJ, Wu F, Annavajhala MK, Uhlemann AC, Parikh BA, McMillen T, Jani K, Babady NE, Hahn AM, Koch RT, Grubaugh ND; Yale SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Surveillance Initiative, Rhoads DD. Partial ORF1ab Gene Target Failure with Omicron BA.2.12.1. J Clin Microbiol. 2022 May 18:e0060022. doi: 10.1128/jcm.00600-22. Online ahead of print. PMID: 35582905

Researchers in the Departments of Microbiology and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine have systemically sequenced the viral genome of SARS-CoV-2 to track the nature and spread of viral variants in the Delaware Valley, evaluating over 6,000 samples and tracking the emergence of new variants in real time. Research led by Kyle G. Rodino, PhD, recently identified the emerging SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant BA.2.12.1, which features mutations that can cause gene target failures. Testing for such a target failure as a proxy for the variant can provide faster tracking than whole-genome sequencing and can benefit labs without sequencing abilities because the gene target failure (in this case, partial ORF1ab) is overwhelmingly associated with the variant. Link to dataset