DOI: 10.36347/sasjm.2021.v07i06.010

Pages: 254-268

The biology of the SARS-CoV-2 virus leads to constant changes in its genome through mutations, so the appearance of variants is an expected fact. Since evolutionary adaptation and diversification has been observed globally throughout the pandemic. Most of the mutations that arise do not provide a selective advantage to the virus, or phenotypic changes that imply alterations in the behavior of the infection. There is concern with the appearance of one or more variants that escape the effect of the neutralizing antibodies generated after a previous infection or vaccination, which could lead to cases of reinfection or loss of vaccine efficacy. These variants could be associated with a decrease in the sensitivity of certain diagnostic techniques, although most of these techniques use several different genes to avoid this effect. The genomic sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 and the platforms used to monitor the different varieties and observe how they are circulating around the world are reviewed.