Systematic SARS-CoV-2 S-gene sequencing in wastewater samples enables early lineage detection and uncovers rare mutations in Portugal

Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved..

As the COVID-19 pandemic reached its peak, many countries implemented genomic surveillance systems to track the evolution and transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Transition from the pandemic to the endemic phase prioritized alternative testing strategies to maintain effective epidemic surveillance at the population level, with less intensive sequencing efforts. One such promising approach was Wastewater-Based Surveillance (WBS), which offers non-invasive, cost-effective means for analysing virus trends at the sewershed level. From 2020 onwards, wastewater has been recognized as an instrumental source of information for public health, with national and international authorities exploring options to implement national wastewater surveillance systems and increasingly relying on WBS as early warning of potential pathogen outbreaks. In Portugal, several pioneer projects joined the academia, water utilities and Public Administration around WBS. To validate WBS as an effective genomic surveillance strategy, it is crucial to collect long term performance data. In this work, we present one year of systematic SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance in Portugal, representing 35 % of the mainland population. We employed two complementary methods for lineage determination - allelic discrimination by RT-PCR and S-gene sequencing. This combination allowed us to monitor variant evolution in near-real-time and identify low-frequency mutations. Over the course of this year-long study, spanning from May 2022 to April 2023, we successfully tracked the dominant Omicron sub-lineages, their progression and evolution, which aligned with concurrent clinical surveillance data. Our results underscore the effectiveness of WBS as a tracking system for virus variants, with the ability to unveil mutations undetected via massive sequencing of clinical samples from Portugal, demonstrating the ability of WBS to uncover new mutations and detect rare genetic variants. Our findings emphasize that knowledge of the genetic diversity of SARS-CoV-2 at the population level can be extended far beyond via the combination of routine clinical genomic surveillance with wastewater sequencing and genotyping.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2024

Erschienen:

2024

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:921

Enthalten in:

The Science of the total environment - 921(2024) vom: 15. März, Seite 170961

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Reis, Ana C [VerfasserIn]
Pinto, Daniela [VerfasserIn]
Monteiro, Sílvia [VerfasserIn]
Santos, Ricardo [VerfasserIn]
Martins, João Vieira [VerfasserIn]
Sousa, Alexandra [VerfasserIn]
Páscoa, Rute [VerfasserIn]
Lourinho, Rita [VerfasserIn]
Cunha, Mónica V [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Genomic variants
Journal Article
SARS-CoV-2
Spike gene sequencing
Wastewater
Wastewater sequencing
Wastewater-based surveillance

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 11.03.2024

Date Revised 11.03.2024

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170961

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM368577945