Table 2.

Mutations in the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 variants that may be contributing to increased pathological properties.

Sl. no:	Mutation	Region on spike	VOCs	Impact on viral pathogenicity
1	D614G	RBD	Found in several lineages	Appeared in 2020 and is the most prevalent. Increase spike density (19)
2	N501Y	RBD	B.1.1.7, B.1.351, P.1	Antibody escape (9)
				May effect host tropism (30)
3	E484K/Q/A	RBD	B.1.351, P.1, B.1.617.1, B.1.1.529	Increase ACE2 binding
				Antibody escape—vaccine ineffectiveness and reinfections (9)
5	K417N/T	RBD	B.1.351, P.1,	Antibody escape—vaccine ineffectiveness and reinfections (9)
6	L452R, T478K	RBD	B.1.617	Increase ACE2 binding (31, 32)
				Antibody escape—resistance to antibody drugs (33)
7	Q677P/H	Near 1/S2 cleavage	Found in several lineages B.1.525	May play a role in increasing the penetrability of the virus into human cells. Not yet shown to be highly infectious.
8	T478K, Q493K, and Q498R	RBD	B.1.1.529	Predicted to increase RBD-ACE2 binding (34)
9	Δ69-70	NTD	B.1.1.7, B.1.1.529	Immune escape (9)