severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continues to disperse globally with worrisome speed

identifying amino acid variations in the virus could help to understand the characteristics of it. Here

we studied 489 SARS-CoV-2 genomes obtained from 32 countries from the Nextstrain database and performed phylogenetic tree analysis by clade

country

and genotype of the surface spike glycoprotein (S protein) at site 614. We found that virus strains from mainland China were mostly distributed in Clade B and Clade undefined in the phylogenetic tree

with very few found in Clade A. In contrast

Clades A2 (one case) and A2a (112 cases) predominantly contained strains from European regions. Moreover

Clades A2 and A2a differed significantly from those of mainland China in age of infected population (

P

 = 0.0071

mean age 40.24 to 46.66)

although such differences did not exist between the US and mainland China. Further analysis demonstrated that the variation of the S protein at site 614 (QHD43416.1: p.614D

>

G) was a characteristic of stains in Clades A2 and A2a. Importantly

this variation was predicted to have neutral or benign effects on the function of the S protein. In addition

global quality estimates and 3D protein structures tended to be different between the two S proteins. In summary

we identified different genomic epidemiology among SARS-CoV-2 strains in different clades

especially in an amino acid variation of the S protein at 614

revealing potential viral genome divergence in SARS-CoV-2 strains.