Reported 'deltacron' likely not actual variant, virologist says

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https://www.kxan.com/news/international/reported-deltacron-likely-not-actual-variant-virologist-says/

Reported ‘deltacron’ likely not actual variant, virologist says
by: Russell Falcon
Posted: Jan 9, 2022 / 08:02 AM CST / Updated: Jan 9, 2022 / 08:02 AM CST

Bloomberg News reported Saturday that Leondios Kostrikis, biological sciences professor at the University of Cyprus, discovered omicron-like genetic signatures within the delta genomes.

But some experts doubt the alleged new variant — pointing to evidence it’s more likely to be lab contamination between delta and omicron. Additionally, as Dr. Tom Peacock, virologist at Imperial Department of Infectious Disease in Britain explains, it’s very likely these could be coinfections of the two strains.

“Small update,” Peacock tweeted Saturday, “The Cypriot ‘deltacron’ sequences reported by several large media outlets look to be quite clearly contamination — they do not cluster on a phylogenetic tree and have a whole Artic primer sequencing amplicon of omicron in an otherwise delta backbone.”

Peacock further explained that contamination is pretty common when new variants are sequenced in labs. He says contamination can happen even with “very, very tiny volumes of fluid.”

Before a new variant is classified, he says the alleged strain should be detected in several other labs first.

Link to tweet