Abstract: As predicted, T372A RBD bound hACE2 with higher affinity in experimental binding assays.
Abstract: We scanned more than 182,000 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) genomes for selective sweep signatures and found a distinct footprint of positive selection located around a non-synonymous change (A1114G; T372A) within the spike protein receptor-binding domain (RBD), predicted to remove glycosylation and increase binding to human ACE2 (hACE2), the cellular receptor.
Result: Here we sought to define the effect of the S T372A mutation on viral replication in human cells.