ArticleNature microbiology2025
Phenotypic evolution of SARS-CoV-2 spike during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article in Nature microbiology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed.
- Switching Spike Plasticity Shapes ACE2 Engagement Across SARS-CoV-2 Variants.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Viral syncytia evolve to resist interferon.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Article
- Review
- From single-sequences to evolutionary trajectories: protein language models capture the evolutionary potential of SARS-CoV-2.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Antibody escape drives emergence of diverse spike haplotypes resembling variants of concern in persistent SARS-CoV-2 infections.Cell reports. Medicine · 2026Article
- How Can Pharmacology Help Us Overcome the Challenges of Drug Repositioning as Antivirals to Treat Emerging Pathogens? The Example of Covid-19.Clinical and translational science · 2026Review
- Virological characterization of SARS-CoV-2 BA.2.86 variants by assessing antiviral susceptibility, in vivo infectivity and replicative fitness.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Cleaved versus Uncleaved: How furin cleavage reshapes the conformational landscape of SARS-CoV-2 spike.Protein science : a publication of the Protein Society · 2025Article
- Mechanisms of Cell-Cell Fusion in SARS-CoV-2: An Evolving Strategy for Transmission and Immune Evasion.Viruses · 2025Review
- Article
- SARS-CoV-2 variants retain high airborne transmissibility by different strategies.Npj viruses · 2025Article
- Enhanced RNA replication and pathogenesis in recent SARS-CoV-2 variants harboring the L260F mutation in NSP6.PLoS pathogens · 2025Article
- Comparative analysis of neutrophil dynamics and disease in SARS-CoV-2 Delta and Omicron variants utilizing anFrontiers in immunology · 2025Article
- Clinical Characteristics During and After COVID-19 Infection Among Healthcare Workers During the First Wave of Omicron in Chongqing, China.Immunity, inflammation and disease · 2025Article
- Optimisation of the cultured ELISpot/Fluorospot technique for the selective investigation of SARS-CoV-2 reactive central memory T cells.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Article
- Antibodies utilizing VL6-57 light chains target a convergent cryptic epitope on SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and potentially drive the genesis of Omicron variants.Nature communications · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
26 authors.
Funding
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 variants are mainly defined by mutations in their spike. It is therefore critical to understand how the evolutionary trajectories of spike affect virus phenotypes. So far, it has been challenging to comprehensively compare the many spikes that emerged during the pandemic in a single experimental platform. Here we generated a panel of recombinant viruses carrying different spike proteins from 27 variants circulating between 2020 and 2024 in the same genomic background. We then assessed several of their phenotypic traits both in vitro and in vivo. We found distinct phenotypic trajectories of spike among and between variants circulating before and after the emergence of Omicron variants. Spike of post-Omicron variants maintained enhanced tropism for the nasal epithelium and large airways but displayed, over time, several phenotypic traits typical of the pre-Omicron variants. Hence, spike with phenotypic features of both pre- and post-Omicron variants may continue to emerge in the future.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.