Am I expected to mention publications in my SoP?

[vnatch]

I basically thought i had my SoP all written and ready for me to send out, but last week my PI informed me that he is publishing on a project I did about a year ago and that I would be an author on the paper. This is my first publication, so I'm obviously super excited, but I'm wondering if I now have to change my SoP to mention this? Aside from the headache of having to rewrite half of my SoP, I'm a bit concerned because I did not do this work by myself (I was actually only a minimal part of this paper) and the topic doesn't fit in super well with what I'm researching now. My current draft is written so that I have a paragraph dedicated to my current project, which (even though it isn't finished) I think is a good one since all of the work is completely independent. In other words, I'd rather not get rid of the bit I wrote about my current project. Alternatively, I could mention the publication in a sentence or two before my current project, but I feel like the Adcom might want me to explain more about it.

My main question is, will it hurt me if I don't mention the publication at all? They will be able to see it because there is a separate section where I list publications, but will they be suspicious if they see the publication but I don't discuss it in the SoP?

[TakeruK]

Are you saying you didn't write about this project at all from a year ago? If that's the case, I think it's definitely worth adding a short paragraph (4-5 sentences) on this project into your SOP. You can end that paragraph saying that your contributions to this project is leading to a publication (and mention its status whether it's submitted/in review/accepted etc.). If you already mention this project in your SOP then just add one sentence to that section.