THE OMICRON VARIANT BREAKS THE EVOLUTIONARY LINEAGE OF SARS-COV2 VARIANTS

Abstract

We analyze here 7 very first strains of OMICRON the SARS-CoV2 new variant from South Africa, the USA (California and Minesota), Canada and Belgium. We applied, at the scale of the whole genome and the spike gene, the biomathematics method of Fibonacci meta-structure fractal analysis applied to the UA / CG proportions.  We have evidenced the RUPTURE of OMICRON with respect to ALL the previous variants: D614G, ALPHA, BETA, GAMMA, DELTA. Remarkably, it is observed that the density of OMICRON mutations in the SPIKE PRION region is more than 8 times that of the rest of the Spike protein. In particular, we suggest that the mRNA stabilizing secondary structure ("hairpin" conformation) in the spike of all variants is degraded in OMICRON, probably making its mRNA more fragile. The loss of long-range fractal meta-structures in the OMICRON spike gene are in line with common knowledge on the mechanisms of epidemic ending, involving  recombination of heavily mutated RNA fragments of the virus, with the possible inference of a distinct helper virus. This would indicate that the SARS-CoV2 is under very strong evolutionary pressure,  possibly marking the end of the pandemic. We are studying more particularly the prion-like region of the spike, the mutations rate of which is 8 times higher in OMICRON than that of the whole spike protein.