Template switching and duplications in SARS-CoV-2 genomes give rise to insertion variants that merit monitoring

Abstract

Sofya Garushyants et al. survey publicly available alignments of SARS-CoV-2 genomes to identify and characterize potential insertion variants throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. They altogether identify 347 inserts, some of which might affect SARS-CoV-2 pathogenicity.