TY - JOUR
AU - Furnon, Wilhelm
AU - Cowton, Vanessa M.
AU - de Lorenzo, Giuditta
AU - Orton, Richard J.
AU - Herder, Vanessa
AU - Cantoni, Diego
AU - Ilia, Georgios
AU - Correa Mendonca, Diogo
AU - Kerr, Karen
AU - Allan, Jay
AU - Upfold, Nicole
AU - Meehan, Gavin R.
AU - Bakshi, Siddharth
AU - Das, Udeet Ranjan
AU - Arias, Sergi Molina
AU - McElwee, Marion J.
AU - Little, Sarah
AU - Logan, Nicola
AU - Kwok, Kirsty T. T.
AU - Smollett, Katherine
AU - Willett, Brian J.
AU - da Silva Filipe, Ana
AU - Robertson, David L.
AU - Grove, Joe
AU - Patel, Arvind H.
AU - Palmarini, Massimo
PY - 2025
DA - January
TI - Phenotypic evolution of SARS-CoV-2 spike during the COVID-19 pandemic
JO - Nature Microbiology
EP - 93
VL - 10
DO - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-024-01878-5
AB - SARS-CoV-2 variants are mainly defined by mutations in their spike. It is therefore critical to understand how the evolutionary trajectories of spike affect virus phenotypes. So far, it has been challenging to comprehensively compare the many spikes that emerged during the pandemic in a single experimental platform. Here we generated a panel of recombinant viruses carrying different spike proteins from 27 variants circulating between 2020 and 2024 in the same genomic background. We then assessed several of their phenotypic traits both in vitro and in vivo. We found distinct phenotypic trajectories of spike among and between variants circulating before and after the emergence of Omicron variants. Spike of post-Omicron variants maintained enhanced tropism for the nasal epithelium and large airways but displayed, over time, several phenotypic traits typical of the pre-Omicron variants. Hence, spike with phenotypic features of both pre- and post-Omicron variants may continue to emerge in the future.
PB - Springer Nature
UR - https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/341533/
KW - Coronavirus (COVID-19)
ER