Fig. 4: Representation of all acquired mutations during prolonged infection.

The acquired and temporarily acquired mutations of the investigated strain in the course of a seven-month-long infection in an immunocompromised person. Overall, 17 persistent or temporary spike mutations were evolved, whereas nine (52.9%) turned out to be temporary and were subsequently replaced by the wild-type variant. *Temporary mutations, S1 spike 1, S2 spike 2, hr heptad repeat, RBD receptor binding domain. The mutations marked in orange are also found in the Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) in similar or identical expression (10 out of 17), mutations marked in red are found in other VOC (3 of 17; 17.6%). All acquired mutations occurred in the regions ORF1a (n = 1), ORF1b (n = 1), ORF8 (1) and the spike (n = 17). Thirteen of the 17 mutations (76.5%) acquired in the course of the prolonged infectious phase are already described mutations in VOC. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.