A visualization of the similarity between the spike protein encoding mRNA sequences in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. mRNA sequences are made up of 4 nucleotides (A,G,C and U) which are translated into protein sequences. Each set of three nucleotides called a codon encode for one amino acid which when chained together make up a protein sequence. But with 64 feasible combinations(4x4x4, 4 nucleotides) and only 20 possible amino acids, several combinations end up coding for the same amino acid. Thus even though the mRNA sequences differ by about 10% when encoded into amino acids they form an exactly identical protein sequence.

mRNA (CDS) Protein coding regions in both vaccines (colored by nucleotide)Adenine (A)Guanine (G)Cytosine (C)Uracil (U)Start/Stop Codons

Pfizer

Moderna

~10% Difference in nucleotides between both (colored by difference)Nucleotides MatchNucleotides are Different

Pfizer

Moderna

Identical sequences when mRNA is translated into Protein (colored by difference) Amino acids sameAmino acids are different

Pfizer

Moderna

Designed at the HCI lab, University of Saskatchewan.

Data source -Assemblies-of-putative-SARS-CoV2-spike-encoding-mRNA-sequences (NAalytics GitHub)