Probing Evolution

What the D614G Mutation Means for Covid-19 Spread, Fatality, Treatment, and Vaccine

Real-life implications of the global shift of D614 to G614 variant.

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The D614G mutation in SARS-CoV-2 is infamous for its rising dominance worldwide. This mutation changes the amino acid at position 614, from D (aspartic acid) to G (glycine) — so, D-614-G. The initial D614 is now the G614 variant. The question is: What real-life implications do this mutation or G614 variant brings, in terms of transmission, disease severity, treatment, and vaccines?

Figure 1. Open-access source: Korber et al. (2020). Tracking Changes in SARS-CoV-2 Spike: Evidence that D614G Increases Infectivity of the COVID-19 Virus.

Is it more transmissible?

In a July study printed in Cell, Dr. Bette Korber, a computational biologist and population geneticist, and colleagues at the Los Alamos National Laboratory analyzed SARS-CoV-2 sequences from 999 patients in the UK. Results showed patients infected with the G614 variant had a higher viral load compared to D614. In human cell cultures in…