What is the new coronavirus variant that was first discovered in India?The variant, identified in October, is a mutant form of the virus that causes Covid-19.
It has 13 mutations, including two notable ones in the spike protein that the virus uses to attach to and infect cells.One of the mutations, dubbed E484Q, is similar to one that is common to the variants identified in South Africa and Brazil.
In those variants, the mutation seems to make the virus better at evading the body’s immune responses. The other, known as L452R, is also found in the dominant strain in California, and may boost viral transmission.The two mutations “are in really important parts of the structure of the spike protein," said Benjamin Pinsky, associate professor of.