Variants of SARS-CoV-2
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Why this is trending
Interest in “Variants of SARS-CoV-2” spiked on Wikipedia on 2026-07-21.
Categorised under Science & Nature, this article fits a familiar pattern. Science and technology topics tend to trend after breakthroughs, space missions, health announcements, or widely shared research findings.
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Key Takeaways
- Variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are viruses that, while similar to the original, have genetic changes that are of enough significance to lead virologists to label them separately.
- Some have been stated to be of particular importance, due to their potential for increased transmissibility, increased virulence, or reduced effectiveness of vaccines against them.
- As of 25 June 2025, the variants of interest as specified by the World Health Organization are JN.
- Overview The origin of SARS-CoV-2 has not been identified.
- Independently, Western researchers carried out similar analyses but labeled the ancestral type "A" and the derived type "B".
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Source summary
WikipediaVariants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are viruses that, while similar to the original, have genetic changes that are of enough significance to lead virologists to label them separately. SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Some have been stated to be of particular importance, due to their potential for increased transmissibility, increased virulence, or reduced effectiveness of vaccines against them. These variants contribute to the continued circulation of SARS-CoV-2.
As of 25 June 2025, the variants of interest as specified by the World Health Organization are JN.1, and the variants under monitoring are KP.3, KP.3.1.1, JN.1.18, LP.8.1, NB.1.8.1, XEC and XFG.
The origin of SARS-CoV-2 has not been identified. However, the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 may have resulted from recombination events between a bat SARS-like coronavirus and a pangolin coronavirus through cross-species transmission. The earliest available SARS-CoV-2 viral genomes were collected from patients in December 2019, and Chinese researchers compared these early genomes with bat and pangolin coronavirus strains to estimate the ancestral human coronavirus type; the identified ancestral genome type was labeled "S", and its dominant derived type was labeled "L" to reflect the mutant amino acid changes. Independently, Western researchers carried out similar analyses but labeled the ancestral type "A" and the derived type "B". The B-type mutated into further types including B.1, which is the ancestor of the major global variants of concern, labeled in 2021 by the WHO as alpha, beta, gamma, delta and omicron variants.
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