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A lone mutation might explain why a coronavirus variant that was identified in the United Kingdom has taken hold there and around the world. In late 2020, researchers found a fast-spreading variant, called B.1.1.7, in southeast England. It now accounts for nearly all UK COVID-19 cases and a steadily rising proportion of those in Europe, North America and elsewhere. B.1.1.7 carries eight changes in the virus’s spike protein — which helps the virus to enter host cells — and it has not been clear which mutations might explain its rapid spread.
To better understand this, Pei-Yong Shi and Scott Weaver, at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, and their colleagues generated a bevy of SARS-CoV-2 strains, each with one of the individual spike mutations in B.1.1.7, as well as one carrying all eight (Y. Liu et al. Preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.org/f2js; 2021). Strains with a mutation called N501Y replicated more quickly in the upper respiratory tracts of hamsters and in airway cells from humans, compared with the other strains, and they also spread more readily between animals. Other mutations might contribute to the behaviour of B.1.1.7, the researchers say, but N501Y’s outsize effects on transmission make it one to watch for closely in other variants. The findings have not yet been peer reviewed.
Research Posted in bioRxiv (March 9, 2021):
