RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Genomic epidemiology of superspreading events in Austria reveals mutational dynamics and transmission properties of SARS-CoV-2
JF Science Translational Medicine
FD American Association for the Advancement of Science
SP eabe2555
DO 10.1126/scitranslmed.abe2555
VO 12
IS 573
A1 Popa, Alexandra
A1 Genger, Jakob-Wendelin
A1 Nicholson, Michael D.
A1 Penz, Thomas
A1 Schmid, Daniela
A1 Aberle, Stephan W.
A1 Agerer, Benedikt
A1 Lercher, Alexander
A1 Endler, Lukas
A1 Colaço, Henrique
A1 Smyth, Mark
A1 Schuster, Michael
A1 Grau, Miguel L.
A1 Martínez-Jiménez, Francisco
A1 Pich, Oriol
A1 Borena, Wegene
A1 Pawelka, Erich
A1 Keszei, Zsofia
A1 Senekowitsch, Martin
A1 Laine, Jan
A1 Aberle, Judith H.
A1 Redlberger-Fritz, Monika
A1 Karolyi, Mario
A1 Zoufaly, Alexander
A1 Maritschnik, Sabine
A1 Borkovec, Martin
A1 Hufnagl, Peter
A1 Nairz, Manfred
A1 Weiss, Günter
A1 Wolfinger, Michael T.
A1 von Laer, Dorothee
A1 Superti-Furga, Giulio
A1 Lopez-Bigas, Nuria
A1 Puchhammer-Stöckl, Elisabeth
A1 Allerberger, Franz
A1 Michor, Franziska
A1 Bock, Christoph
A1 Bergthaler, Andreas
YR 2020
UL http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/12/573/eabe2555.abstract
AB Austria was an early hotspot of SARS-CoV-2 transmission due to winter tourism. By integrating viral genomic and phylogenetic analyses with time-resolved contact tracing data, Popa et al. examined the fine-scale dynamics of viral spread within and from Austria in the spring of 2020. Epidemiologically defined phylogenetic clusters and viral mutational profiles provided evidence of the ongoing fixation of two viral alleles within transmission chains and enabled estimation of the SARS-CoV-2 bottleneck size. This study provides an epidemiologically contextualized, high-resolution picture of SARS-CoV-2 mutational dynamics in an early international transmission hub.Superspreading events shaped the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and their rapid identification and containment are essential for disease control. Here, we provide a national-scale analysis of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) superspreading during the first wave of infections in Austria, a country that played a major role in initial virus transmissions in Europe. Capitalizing on Austria’s well-developed epidemiological surveillance system, we identified major SARS-CoV-2 clusters during the first wave of infections and performed deep whole-genome sequencing of more than 500 virus samples. Phylogenetic-epidemiological analysis enabled the reconstruction of superspreading events and charts a map of tourism-related viral spread originating from Austria in spring 2020. Moreover, we exploited epidemiologically well-defined clusters to quantify SARS-CoV-2 mutational dynamics, including the observation of low-frequency mutations that progressed to fixation within the infection chain. Time-resolved virus sequencing unveiled viral mutation dynamics within individuals with COVID-19, and epidemiologically validated infector-infectee pairs enabled us to determine an average transmission bottleneck size of 103 SARS-CoV-2 particles. In conclusion, this study illustrates the power of combining epidemiological analysis with deep viral genome sequencing to unravel the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and to gain fundamental insights into mutational dynamics and transmission properties.