The UK SARS-CoV-2 multiply mutated variant VUI 202012/01 also has an interesting Spike deletion 69/70 we have been studying. The deletion is increasing in frequency (blue), as is the new UK variant (red) (Dec still going) @firefoxx66 @JamesTGallagher @EricTopol @VirusesImmunity

When we made this deletion alone in a simplified lab virus that has the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein, we found that it was twice as infectious on cells that expressed the surface receptor used by the virus. This could potentially explain why VUI 202012/01 appears to spread faster.

VUI 202012/01 has a number of other changes in Spike. This figure shows some of the major ones in red. Some like the 69/70 and 144 deletions are in exposed loops that may alter structure and impact replication or antibody recognition. Others eg N501Y are involved in ACE2 binding.