Deltacron: does the new variant discovered in Cyprus really exist?

Saturday 8 January 2021, the press agency Bloomberg published information which quickly made the rounds in the media. Leondios G. Kostrikis, a biochemist Cypriot and head of the biotechnology and molecular virology laboratory at the University of Cyprus, discovered a new variant of the coronavirus, resulting from the recombination between the Delta variants and Omicron. The scientist announced his discovery, called “Deltacron” on Sigma TV during an interview on January 7, 2021.

The Delta variant with genetic signatures of Omicron

The Deltacron genome is said to be largely similar to that of the Delta variant, but has changes specific to Omicron. Leondios Kostrikis and his team claim to have detected 25 cases of Deltacron. The sequences of these have been transmitted at Gisaid by Cypriot scientists, a database which groups the sequences of the variants of the coronavirus, but Deltacron is not yet part of the list of variants listed by the site.

Indeed, Deltacron’s discovery leaves many scientists skeptical. Tom Peacock, virologist at theImperial College from London, spoke on Twitter about it. For him, it is a problem of contamination samples rather than an actual recombination event.

A variant that does not exist?

Leondios Kostrikis said to Bloomberg, January 9, 2021, that the 25 samples were not sequenced at the same time, which excludes, according to him, any technical error. Moreover, he does not believe that Deltacron is the result of the recombination between Delta and Omicron in a patient co-infected with the two variants, but rather the result of the natural evolution of an older variant.

So does the Deltacron variant really exist? Difficult to say from these elements alone. To confirm the existence of Deltacron, other similar observations must be made independently repeatedly, and in different laboratories.