Forgot Password

If you have forgotten your password you can enter your email here and get a temporary password sent to your email.

Forgot Password

If you have forgotten your password you can enter your email here and get a temporary password sent to your email.

Publication

Mutations in SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern link to increased spike cleavage and virus transmission.

Cell host & microbe | 2022

SARS-CoV-2 lineages have diverged into highly prevalent variants termed "variants of concern" (VOCs). Here, we characterized emerging SARS-CoV-2 spike polymorphisms in vitro and in vivo to understand their impact on transmissibility and virus pathogenicity and fitness. We demonstrate that the substitution S:655Y, represented in the gamma and omicron VOCs, enhances viral replication and spike protein cleavage. The S:655Y substitution was transmitted more efficiently than its ancestor S:655H in the hamster infection model and was able to outcompete S:655H in the hamster model and in a human primary airway system. Finally, we analyzed a set of emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants to investigate how different sets of mutations may impact spike processing. All VOCs tested exhibited increased spike cleavage and fusogenic capacity. Taken together, our study demonstrates that the spike mutations present in VOCs that become epidemiologically prevalent in humans are linked to an increase in spike processing and virus transmission.

Pubmed ID: 35150638 RIS Download

Research resources used in this publication

Additional research tools detected in this publication

Antibodies used in this publication

Associated grants

Agency: NCI NIH HHS, United States
Id: U54 CA260560
Agency: NIAID NIH HHS, United States
Id: U19 AI142733
Agency: NIAID NIH HHS, United States
Id: U19 AI135990
Agency: NIH HHS, United States
Id: S10 OD026880
Agency: NIH HHS, United States
Id: S10 OD030463
Agency: NIGMS NIH HHS, United States
Id: P20 GM130448
Agency: NIAID NIH HHS, United States
Id: HHSN272201400006C
Agency: NIAID NIH HHS, United States
Id: U19 AI135972
Agency: NIAID NIH HHS, United States
Id: 75N93021C00014

Publication data is provided by the National Library of Medicine ® and PubMed ®. Data is retrieved from PubMed ® on a weekly schedule. For terms and conditions see the National Library of Medicine Terms and Conditions.

This is a list of tools and resources that we have found mentioned in this publication.

ggplot2 (tool)

RRID:SCR_014601

Open source software package for statistical programming language R to create plots based on grammar of graphics. Used for data visualization to break up graphs into semantic components such as scales and layers.

View all literature mentions

SnapGene (tool)

RRID:SCR_015052

Molecular biology software for visualizing and documenting gene constructs for InFusion cloning, Gibson assembly, restriction cloning, PCR, and mutagenesis.

View all literature mentions

Nanopolish (tool)

RRID:SCR_016157

Software package for signal-level analysis of Oxford Nanopore sequencing data.

View all literature mentions

Minimap2 (tool)

RRID:SCR_018550

Software tool as pairwise alignment for nucleotide sequences. Alignment program to map DNA or long mRNA sequences against large reference database. Versatile pairwise aligner for genomic and spliced nucleotide sequences.

View all literature mentions