Virology

Point mutation

Population

Demography

Mutation

Gene

Virus

Biology

Sociology

Genetics

Infectivity

eLife

A novel variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus carrying a point mutation in the Spike protein (D614G) has recently emerged and rapidly surpassed others in prevalence. This mutation is in linkage disequilibrium with an ORF1b protein variant (P314L), making it difficult to discern the functional significance of the Spike D614G mutation from population genetics alone. Here, we perform site-directed mutagenesis on wild-type human-codon-optimized Spike to introduce the D614G variant. Using multiple human cell lines, including human lung epithelial cells, we found that the lentiviral particles pseudotyped with Spike D614G are more effective at transducing cells than ones pseudotyped with wild-type Spike. The increased transduction with Spike D614G ranged from 1.3- to 2.4-fold in Caco-2 and Calu-3 cells expressing endogenous ACE2 and from 1.5- to 7.7-fold in A549 ACE2 and Huh7.5 ACE2 overexpressing ACE2. Furthermore, trans -complementation of SARS-CoV-2 virus with Spike D614G showed an increased infectivity in human cells....

The Spike D614G mutation increases SARS-CoV-2 infection of multiple human cell types