Introduction: Other than the early identification of the
D614G substitution in the viral
Spike protein and
P323L in the viral
RNA-dependent RNA polymerase protein, both of which may have increased viral transmissibility without impacting pathogenesis, few mutations were epidemiologically significant and the evolutionary dynamics of the virus were predominantly characterized by a mutational pattern of slow and selectively neutral random genetic drift.
Figure: Also included for reference are sites previously detected to be evolving under positive selection such as
S/614, the site of the
D614G mutation that is present in all three of the 501Y lineages,
S/5, and
RdRp/
P323L (ORF1b/