Global variation in the SARS-CoV-2 proteome reveals the mutational hotspots in the drug and vaccine candidates

To accelerate the drug and vaccine development against the severe acute respiratory syndrome virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a comparative analysis of SARS-CoV-2 proteome has been performed in two phases by considering manually curated 31389 whole genome sequences from 84 countries. Among the 9 mutations that occur at a high significance (T85I-NPS2, L37F-NSP6, P323L-NSP12, D614G-spike, Q57H-ORF3a, G251V-ORF3a, L84S-ORF8, R203K-nucleocapsid and G204R-nucleocapsid), R203K-nucleocapsid and G204R-nucleocapsid are co-occurring (dependent) mutations and P323L-NSP12 and D614G-spike often appear simultaneously. Other notable variations that appear with a moderate to low significance are, M85-NSP1 deletion, D268-NSP2 deletion, 112 amino acids deletion in ORF8, a phenylalanine insertion amidst F34-F36 (NSP6) and several co-existing (dependent) substitution/deletion (I559V & P585S in NSP2, P504L & Y541C in NSP13, G82 & H83 deletions in NSP1 and K141, S142 & F143 deletions in NSP2) mutations. P323L-NSP12, D614G-spike, L37F-NSP6, L84S-ORF8 and the sequences deficient of the high significant mutations have led to 4 major SARS-CoV-2 clades. The top 5 countries bearing all the high significant and majority of the moderate significant mutations are: USA, England, Wales, Australia and Scotland. Further, the majority of the significant mutations have evolved in the first phase and have already transmitted around the globe indicating the positive selection pressure. Among the 26 SARS-CoV-2 proteins, nucleocapsid protein, ORF3a, ORF8, RNA dependent RNA polymerase and spike exhibit a higher heterogeneity compared with the rest of the proteins. However, NSP9, NSP10, NSP8, the envelope protein and NSP4 are highly resistant to mutations and can be exploited for drug/vaccine development.