Deep mutational scans of XBB.1.5 and BQ.1.1 reveal ongoing epistatic drift during SARS-CoV-2 evolution.

ABSTRACT: Substitutions that fix between SARS-CoV-2 variants can transform the mutational landscape of future evolution via epistasis. For example, large epistatic shifts in mutational effects caused by N501Y underlied the original emergence of Omicron, but whether such epistatic saltations continue to define ongoing SARS-CoV-2 evolution remains unclear. We conducted deep mutational scans to measure the impacts of all single amino acid mutations and single-codon deletions in the spike receptor-binding domain (RBD) on ACE2-binding affinity and protein expression in the recent Omicron BQ.1.1 and XBB.1.5 variants, and we compared mutational patterns to earlier viral strains that we have previously profiled. As with previous deep mutational scans, we find many mutations that are tolerated or even enhanc

SUBMITTER: Taylor AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10783747 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature