An entropy-based study on mutational trajectory of SARS-CoV-2 in India.

ABSTRACT

The pandemic of COVID-19 has been haunting us for almost the past two years. Although, the vaccination drive is in full swing throughout the world, different mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus are making it very difficult to put an end to the pandemic. The second wave in India, one of the worst sufferers of this pandemic, can be mainly attributed to the Delta variant i.e. B.1.617.2. Thus, it is very important to analyse and understand the mutational trajectory of SARS-CoV-2 through the study of the 26 virus proteins. In this regard, more than 17,000 protein sequences of Indian SARS-CoV-2 genomes are analysed using entropy-based approach in order to find the monthly mutational trajectory. Furthermore, Hellinger distance is also used to show the difference of the mutation events between the consecutive months for each of the 26 SARS-CoV-2 protein. The results show that the mutation rates and the mutation events of the viral proteins though changing in the initial months, start stabilizing later on for mainly the four structural proteins while the non-structural proteins mostly exhibit a more constant trend. As a consequence, it can be inferred that the evolution of the new mutative configurations will eventually reduce.