One year of SARS-CoV-2 evolution

SARS-CoV-2 emerged in December 2019. Tracking of genome sequence evolution in one year shows that 0.035 amino acid mutations per day were inserted. The D614G in spike protein is dominant in the world, which is involved in the rapid transmission. Three major variants N501Y.V1 (UK), N501Y.V2(South Africa) and N501Y.V3 (Brazil) have raised global concerns. N501Y mutation has been shown to enhance the binding affinity of SARS-CoV-2 to human ACE2 receptor.