Gujarat reports 1st case of COVID-19 XE Variant

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Last Updated11/04/2022

Gujarat Biotechnology Research Centre detected the XE variant in a patient 12 days ago.
The sample was sent for confirmation as per INSACOG guidelines, to a Kolkata laboratory (DBT- National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG), Kalyani).
The confirmation report of the XE variant was received recently

Virus increases its genetic diversity by recombination.
Recombination occurs when, in extremely rare situations, two different lineages of the virus co-infect the same cell in the host and exchange fragments of their individual genomes
It generates a descendent variant having mutations that occurred in both the original lineages of the virus.
Recombination of lineages happens in a variety of other viruses, including those that cause influenza, as well as other coronaviruses.
Such recombination events occur typically in situations where two or more lineages of SARS-CoV-2 may be co-circulating in a certain region during the same time period.
This co-circulation of lineages provides an opportunity for recombination to occur between these two lineages of SARS-CoV-2.

While recombination events are not frequently observed for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, multiple recombinant lineages have been designated during the pandemic.
The recombinant lineages are annotated by PANGO with an ‘X’ followed by an alphabet which indicates the order of discovery.
Some previously detected and designated lineages:
XA: recombinant of B.1.1.7 (Alpha) and B.1.177 detected in the U.K
XB: detected in the U.S.
XC: detected in Japan, which is a recombinant of B.1.1.7 (Alpha) and AY.29 sublineage of Delta
Three new recombinant lineages of SARS-CoV-2 have been recently designated by the PANGO network and are being monitored — XD, XE, and XF.

It stands for Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium
It is a joint initiative of the Health Ministry, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)
It is a national multi-agency consortium of Regional Genome Sequencing Laboratories (RGSLs)
It was set up by the Indian Government in December 2020 to monitor the genomic variations in the covid-19 causing SARS-CoV-2 virus
RGSLs are responsible for genome sequencing and identification of variants of concern/variants of interest, potential variants of interest, and other mutations. Read more on coronavirus variants in the link.
The idea behind the establishment of the INSACOG is to expand the whole genome sequencing of the coronavirus to understand how it spreads and evolves.

It is not designated as a variant of concern till now and scientists are of view that it is not likely to cause any more severity than other sub-variants of Omicron (BA.1 and BA.2) did

Prelims Takeway