ArticleEMBO reports2022
Evolutionary remodelling of N-terminal domain loops fine-tunes SARS-CoV-2 spike.
Article in EMBO reports, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed.
- NTD Remodeling in the SARS-CoV-2 BA.3.2 Variant May Influence Spike Stability and Immune Escape.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- A SARS-CoV-2 variant-induced NTD-targeting antibody enhances viral infection via a distinctive binding mode.PLoS pathogens · 2026Article
- A Pandemic-Scale Ancestral Recombination Graph for SARS-CoV-2.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Spike mutations that affect the function and antigenicity of recent KP.3.1.1-like SARS-CoV-2 variants.Journal of virology · 2025Article
- Structural Analysis of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike N-Terminal Domain Across Wild-Type and Recent Variants: A Comparative Study.Proteins · 2025Article
- Spike mutations that affect the function and antigenicity of recent KP.3.1.1-like SARS-CoV-2 variants.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody specificities differ dramatically between recently infected infants and immune-imprinted individuals.Journal of virology · 2025Article
- SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody specificities differ dramatically between recently infected infants and immune-imprinted individuals.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Phenotypic evolution of SARS-CoV-2 spike during the COVID-19 pandemic.Nature microbiology · 2025Article
- Emergence of the BA.2.87.1 lineage of SARS-CoV-2 in South Africa, a highly diverged BA.2-related lineage.Virus evolution · 2025Article
- Genome data artifacts and functional studies of deletion repair in the BA.1 SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.Virus evolution · 2025Article
- Review
- Emergence of SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant JN.1 in Tamil Nadu, India - Clinical characteristics and novel mutations.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Article
- Article
- Variation in structural motifs within SARS-related coronavirus spike proteins.PLoS pathogens · 2024Article
- Emergence of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant JN.1 in Tamil Nadu, India - Clinical Characteristics and Novel Mutations.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2024Article
- Characteristics and Functions of Infection-enhancing Antibodies to the N-terminal Domain of SARS-CoV-2.Pathogens & immunity · 2024Article
- Enhancement of SARS-CoV-2 Infection via Crosslinking of Adjacent Spike Proteins by N-Terminal Domain-Targeting Antibodies.Viruses · 2023Article
- Defining neutralization and allostery by antibodies against COVID-19 variants.Nature communications · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
30 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants has exacerbated the COVID-19 global health crisis. Thus far, all variants carry mutations in the spike glycoprotein, which is a critical determinant of viral transmission being responsible for attachment, receptor engagement and membrane fusion, and an important target of immunity. Variants frequently bear truncations of flexible loops in the N-terminal domain (NTD) of spike; the functional importance of these modifications has remained poorly characterised. We demonstrate that NTD deletions are important for efficient entry by the Alpha and Omicron variants and that this correlates with spike stability. Phylogenetic analysis reveals extensive NTD loop length polymorphisms across the sarbecoviruses, setting an evolutionary precedent for loop remodelling. Guided by these analyses, we demonstrate that variations in NTD loop length, alone, are sufficient to modulate virus entry. We propose that variations in NTD loop length act to fine-tune spike; this may provide a mechanism for SARS-CoV-2 to navigate a complex selection landscape encompassing optimisation of essential functionality, immune-driven antigenic variation and ongoing adaptation to a new host.
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Registered trials
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