“The second Brazilian genome is more similar to the genome sequenced in the United Kingdom, and both differ from the Chinese sequences. Completed only 24 hours after confirmation of the case in Brazil, the study shows that there are differences between the genomes of the viruses isolated from the first and second patients. The researchers at IAL also sequenced the whole genome of the coronavirus isolated from the second Brazilian patient diagnosed with COVID-19, as the disease is officially called, on February 29. To understand how the virus is spreading and evolving, we have to map the whole genome,” she said. “This virus mutates relatively little, once a month on average, so there’s no point in sequencing small pieces of the genome. They haven’t identified patient zero and don’t know whether he or she came from China directly or via other countries,” Ester Sabino, head of USP’s Tropical Medicine Institute (IMT), told Agência FAPESP.Īccording to Sabino, the first Brazilian sequence closely resembles the samples sequenced in Germany on January 28 and differs from the genome sequenced in Wuhan, the epicenter of the epidemic in China. We know the confirmed cases in Brazil came from Italy, but the Italians don’t yet know the origin of the outbreak in Lombardy as they have yet to sequence their samples. “By sequencing the genome, we’ve come closer to finding out the origin of the epidemic. This kind of information helps understand how the virus is spreading around the world, and is useful for the development of vaccines and diagnostic tests.

The report was published on February 28 on, a forum for discussion and data sharing used by virologists, epidemiologists and public health specialists. Only two days after Latin America’s first case of coronavirus was confirmed in São Paulo, the largest Brazilian city, researchers at Adolfo Lutz Institute (IAL), the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil and the University of Oxford in the UK have published the complete genome sequence for the virus, which they call severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

Covid 19 genome sequence analysis