Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to provide a comparative analysis of variant clusters and their relevance across Africa, America, Europe, and Asia, in order to understand the evolutionary patterns of the virus across different regions and to inform the development of targeted interventions and genomic surveillance eforts. METHODS: The study analyzed the global lineage evolution pattern of 74, 075 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) genomes from 32 countries across four continents, focusing on variant clusters and their relevance across regions. Variants were weighted according to their hierarchical level. The correlation between variants was visualized through Dimensionality reduction analysis and Pairwise Pearson's correlation. We presented a reconstructed phylogenetic tree based on correlation analysis and variant weights. RESULTS: The analysis revealed that each continent had distinct variant clusters and different evolutionary patterns. The Americas had two clustered variants before lineage divergence and a downstream confluence lineage, Europe had bifurcation into two global lineages with an early occurrence of certain cluster while Asia had a downstream confluence of two large lineages diverging by two distinct clusters. Based on the cluster patterns of shared variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, Africa demonstrated a relatively clear distinction among three distinct regions. CONCLUSIONS: The study provides insights into the evolutionary patterns of SARS-CoV-2 and highlights the importance of international collaboration in tracking and responding to emerging variants. The study found that the global pandemic was driven by Omicron variants that evolved with significant differences between countries and regions, and with different patterns across continents.