Explained: What is XE variant of coronavirus, and why you need not worry about it

What is the News?

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation(BMC) has announced that a woman with a travel history to South Africa may have been infected with the newly-discovered ‘XE’ variant of the coronavirus.

What is XE Variant?

XE is a sub-variant of Omicron which caused the third wave of Covid-19.

First Discovered in: XE was first discovered in the United Kingdom in January 2022 and so far more than 600 samples of XE have been found in different countries.

How was XE Variant formed?

The Omicron variant has two prominent sub-variants, called BA.1 and BA.2. There is also a BA.3 sub-variant as well, but that is less common.

The XE variant is what is called a ‘recombinant’ variant. This means it contains the mutations found in BA.1 as well as BA.2 varieties of Omicron. 

What is a Recombinant Variant?

Apart from the errors in the virus genome, another process through which the virus increases its genetic diversity is recombination. 

Recombination occurs in extremely rare situations. In this, two different lineages of the virus co-infect the same cell in the host and exchange fragments of their individual genomes. This generates a descendent variant having mutations that occurred in both the original lineages of the virus. 

Recombination of lineages happens in a variety of other viruses, including those that cause influenza, as well as other coronaviruses.

Is there a threat from XE?

As of now, there is no evidence to show that the XE variant is significantly different from the other varieties of Omicron.

XE could be about 10% more transmissible than the dominant BA.2 variant. But that is a very small advantage that XE has, and even this has not been confirmed as of now.

Source: This post is based on the article “Explained: What is XE variant of coronavirus, and why you need not worry about it” published in Indian Express on 7th April 2022.