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. 2021 Jan 21;17(1):e1009233. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1009233

Fig 1. Isolation of SARS-CoV-2 S gene mutants.

Fig 1

(A) Schematic representation of SARS-CoV-2 S protein. Full-length S protein is cleaved into S1 and S2 proteins at the S1/S2 cleavage site. Functional domains (RBD, receptor binding domain; RBM, receptor binding motif) are highlighted. (B) Multiple amino acid sequence alignments focused on the S1/S2 cleavage site of wild type (WT) and isolated mutant viruses (del1, del2, del3 and R685H). Amino acid substitutions and deletions are shown as gray boxes, and the polybasic cleavage motif (RARR) at the S1/S2 cleavage site is highlighted in red. A red arrowhead indicates S1/S2 cleavage site. (C) Plaque formation for SARS-CoV-2 WT and isolated mutants grown in Vero-TMPRSS2 cells on 6 well plates. (D) Detection of virus S and N proteins in Vero-TMPRSS2 cells infected with WT or isolated mutants. The full-length S and cleaved S2 proteins are indicated by closed and open arrowheads, respectively.