废水中SARS-CoV-2的遗传变异及其与社区传播的关联

Although often estimated in human samples (20), genetic diversity measures the variation in DNA sequences in a population and can be applied to a wastewater sample. As a virus spreads through a host population, viral genomes accumulate mutations during within-host evolution, some of which are propagated onward upon transmission to subsequent hosts. During times of increased cases, we see more between-host transmission, leading to an increase in the amount of within-host replication. Because there is more virus in the popula- tion, there are more genetic mutations of the virus. We hypothesized that an increase in genetic mutations would be reflected by an in- crease in diversity in wastewater-derived viral genomes and correlate with a higher prevalence of infection. …