The worldwide spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome cor-onavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the novel human pathogen, first detectedin China quickly became a global health emergency, culminating withthe World Health Organization publicly proclaiming the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak as a pandemic (11 March 2020). SARS-CoV-2 is an enveloped +single-stranded RNAvirus, belonging to the Betacoronavirus genus, which includes twoother RNA viruses that have caused recent important epidemics:SARS caused by SARS-CoV and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) caused by MERS-CoV.
Viral fitness of RNA viruses is influenced by their very high fre-quency of mutation, which, in turn, can affect infection speed andevolution rate.However, the resulting genetic variability needs to bebalanced between the maintenance of genetic information integrity andsurvival within the host.68The viral genome mutagenic process isdepended on sever al factors, including viral enzymes responsible fornucleic acids replication, which may have few or no proofreading and/orpostreplicative nucleic acid repair capability. Several reports result show that SARSCoV2 is rapidly movingacross countries, and new mutation hotspots are emerging in differentparts of the genome.Such variability indeed has implications forcontrol of the pandemic and potential emergence of viral strains withdifferent characteristics, including increased or reduced infectivity and lethality.
