The double and triple mutant strains detected in India are one and the same variant of the coronavirus, and the available vaccines are effective on it, National Institute of Biomedical Genomics Director Soumitra Das said on Friday. Speaking at a webinar on ‘Genome Sequencing of SARS-CoV-19’, Das said double mutant and triple mutant terms are “colloquial” and both refer to the same variant — B.1.617 variant of the coronavirus.
“Double and triple mutants are one and the same. Double and triple mutants are over-lapping terms and have been used differentially in different context,” he said.
The National Institute of Biomedical Genomics in Kalyani is an institute under the Department of Biotechnology and is one of the 10 laboratories across the country involved in the genome sequencing of the coronavirus.
In fact, these variants harbour 15 lineage defining mutations. B.1.617, initially termed double mutant, has three new spike protein mutations, he said.
Two mutations — E484Q and L452R — are in the area important for antibody-based neutralisation. “Initially we were signifying two mutations which are important for escape (the vaccine escape and antibody escape). That is why it is called the double mutant,” he said.
