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Genetic sequencing detected the SARS-CoV-2 delta variant in wastewater a month prior to the first COVID-19 case in Ahmedabad (India)

Lookup NU author(s): Professor David GrahamORCiD

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Abstract

© 2022. Wastewater-based genomic surveillance can identify a huge majority of variants shed by the infected individuals within a population, which goes beyond genomic surveillance based on clinical samples (i.e., symptomatic patients only). We analyzed four samples to detect key mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 genome and track circulating variants in Ahmedabad during the first wave (Sep/Nov 2020) and before the second wave (in Feb 2021) of COVID-19 in India. The analysis identified a total of 34 mutations in the spike protein across samples categorized into 23 types. The spike protein mutations were linked to the VOC-21APR-02; B.1.617.2 lineage (Delta variant) with 57% frequency in wastewater samples of Feb 2021. The key spike protein mutations were T19R, L452R, T478K, D614G, & P681R and deletions at 22029 (6 bp), 28248 (6 bp), & 28271 (1 bp). Interestingly, these mutations were not seen in the samples from Sep/Nov 2020 but did appear before the massive second wave of COVID-19 cases, which in India started in early April 2021. In fact, genetic traces of the Delta variant were found in samples of early Feb 2021, more than a month before the first clinically confirmed case of this in March 2021 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The present work describes the circulating of SARS-CoV-2 variants in Ahmedabad and confirms the consequential value of wastewater surveillance for the early detection of variants of concerns (VOCs). Such monitoring must be included as a major component of future health protection systems.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Joshi M, Kumar M, Srivastava V, Kumar D, Rathore DS, Pandit R, Graham DW, Joshi CG

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Environmental Pollution

Year: 2022

Volume: 310

Print publication date: 01/10/2022

Online publication date: 16/07/2022

Acceptance date: 08/07/2022

ISSN (print): 0269-7491

ISSN (electronic): 1873-6424

Publisher: Elsevier Ltd

URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119757

DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119757

PubMed id: 35853573

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