The Lambda Variant in Argentina: Analyzing the Evolution and Spread of SARS-CoV-2 Lineage C.37.

The second wave of COVID-19 occurred in South America in early 2021 and was mainly driven by Gamma and Lambda variants. In this study, we aimed to describe the emergence and local genomic diversity of the SARS-CoV-2 Lambda variant in Argentina, from its initial entry into the country until its detection ceased. Molecular surveillance was conducted on 9356 samples from Argentina between October 2020 and April 2022, and sequencing, phylogenetic, and phylogeographic analyses were performed.

Cost-Effective Method to Perform SARS-CoV-2 Variant Surveillance: Detection of Alpha, Gamma, Lambda, Delta, Epsilon, and Zeta in Argentina.

SARS-CoV-2 variants with concerning characteristics have emerged since the end of 2020. Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 variants was performed on a total of 4,851 samples from the capital city and 10 provinces of Argentina, during 51 epidemiological weeks (EWs) that covered the end of the first wave and the ongoing second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country (EW 44/2020 to EW 41/2021). The surveillance strategy was mainly based on Sanger sequencing of a Spike coding region that allows the identification of signature mutations associated with variants.

Microsatellite isolation and characterization in sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.).

Development of microsatellite markers for sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) was performed to estimate their frequency, nature (structure), levels of polymorphism, usefulness for genotype identification, and calculation of genetic relationships between inbred lines representing the species diversity. Isolation was performed from a small-insert genomic library followed by hybridization screening using oligonucleotide probes containing different nucleotide arrays.