Mutations in 5’UTR and 3’UTR
Although there are high frequencies of deletion and insertion found in
the 3’-UTR (reference genome NC_045512.2: 29675 to 29903) and 5’-UTR
(reference genome MN908947.3: 1 to 265) of SARS-CoV-2 genomes, the
sequences are high conservative (Supplementary S4 & Figure 2A). It is
worth noting that a mutation frequently appeared in -25 upstream of the
ORF1ab start codon (Figure 2A). The most frequent mutation in this site
is transition (C241T/U). Predicted second structure of 5’UTR showed that
the mutation site is located in a little loop (Figure 2 B&C). Still,
the effect of the mutation should be carefully investigated in the
future. Investigating the source of the mutants, we found that most
mutations were discovered in USA with later collection time.
Figure 2