A Successful Article from the Department of Medical Genetics

On this topic, Dr. Onur Tokgün made statements; "Understanding the transmission patterns and molecular evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is crucial to producing effective drugs and vaccines for disease prevention. Therefore, analyzes of the genomic sequences of coronaviruses constitute the main tools for drug / vaccine design. There are 1,448,566 SARS-CoV-2 full genome sequences in the database (https://www.gisaid.org/epiflu-applications/hcov-19-reference-sequence) where virus genome sequences are shared worldwide (GISAID). Although there are many SARS-CoV-2 genomes from all regions of the world from the GISAID database, there were no samples from our DENİZLİ province. In this project, which was supported by the Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit of our University as a Quick Support project, a new generation sequencing (NGS) analysis was performed to reveal the full genome sequences of the SARS-CoV-2 genome isolated from 15 Turkish patient samples from Denizli province. Our study, which we have successfully completed, has been accepted as a scientific publication in The Journal of Infection in Developing Countries (JIDC). In our study, phylogenetic analyzes were carried out by taking into account all of the SARS-CoV-2 genomes in Turkey and the worldwide isolates selected from GISAID in order to determine their genetic similarities. In addition, variation analyzes were also performed to show mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 genomes. In this study, which was carried out by us in our Medical Genetics Department, all experimental and bioinformatics analyzes were found to have rare mutations observed in databases with frequencies of 0.01-0.03%."

Dr. Tokgün also said that they think that their study will contribute to both drug and vaccine design and interpretation of regional differences in the course of the disease.