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Our updated #SARSCoV2 in cats preprint is now available @ https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.16.384917v2.full.pdf+html this time with an emphasis on Spike H655Y! A 
(1/7)
@KATarinambraun @tcfriedrich @dho
(1/7)@KATarinambraun @tcfriedrich @dho
I won't get into the details over the first version of this preprint but @KATarinambraun already did a GREAT thread here 
(2/7) https://twitter.com/KATarinambraun/status/1331035969433251843?s=20
(2/7) https://twitter.com/KATarinambraun/status/1331035969433251843?s=20
So why did we focus more on Spike H655Y this time?
This variant rapidly rose to intermediate frequencies in all 3 index cats, and became fixed in 2/3 contact cats. This made us think this site was possibly under selection. (3/7)
This variant rapidly rose to intermediate frequencies in all 3 index cats, and became fixed in 2/3 contact cats. This made us think this site was possibly under selection. (3/7)
What is special about Spike amino acid 655?
It is near the polybasic cleavage site, residing
between the RBD and the fusion peptide. Variants at this site have been hypothesized to play a role in possibly enhancing Spike glycoprotein fusion efficiency (4/7)
It is near the polybasic cleavage site, residing
between the RBD and the fusion peptide. Variants at this site have been hypothesized to play a role in possibly enhancing Spike glycoprotein fusion efficiency (4/7)
What's special pt. 2?
Work by Baum et al. ( https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6506/1014) showed that Spike H655Y was able to confer escape multiple monoclonal human antibodies in cell culture. More work is needed in vivo to know if this is true in human infections. (5/7)
Work by Baum et al. ( https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6506/1014) showed that Spike H655Y was able to confer escape multiple monoclonal human antibodies in cell culture. More work is needed in vivo to know if this is true in human infections. (5/7)
Is H655Y in humans?
@firefoxx66 helped create a focal Nextstrain build for H655Y. This variant has arisen at least 2 times in the UK, and many times around the world. At the time of our preprint, over 1000 sequences contained this variant. (6/7)
@firefoxx66 helped create a focal Nextstrain build for H655Y. This variant has arisen at least 2 times in the UK, and many times around the world. At the time of our preprint, over 1000 sequences contained this variant. (6/7)
This week, there was a lot of excitement over this virological post. As we try to understand newly arisen variants, it's becoming increasingly important to understand how viruses adapt to and transmit between humans and non-human mammalian hosts https://virological.org/t/mutations-arising-in-sars-cov-2-spike-on-sustained-human-to-human-transmission-and-human-to-animal-passage/578 (7/7)
