Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 is under strong evolutionary selection to acquire mutations in its spike protein that
reduce neutralization by human polyclonal antibodies. Here we use pseudovirus-based deep
mutational scanning to measure how mutations to the spike from the recent KP.3.1.1 SARS-CoV-2
strain a ffect cell entry, binding to ACE2 receptor, RBD up/down motion, and neutralization by
human sera and clinically relevant antibodies. The spike mutations that most a ffect serum antibody
neutralization sometimes di ffer between sera collected before versus after recent vaccination or
infection, indicating these exposures shift the neutralization immunodominance hierarchy. The sites
where mutations cause the greatest reduction in neutralization by post-vaccination or infection sera
include receptor-binding domain (RBD) sites 475, 478 and 487, all of which have mutated in recent
SARS-CoV-2 variants. Multiple mutations outside the RBD a ffect sera neutralization as strongly as
any RBD mutations by modulating RBD up/down movement. Some sites that a ffect RBD up/down
movement have mutated in recent SARS-CoV-2 variants. Finally, we measure how spike mutations
affect neutralization by three clinically relevant SARS-CoV-2 antibodies: VYD222, BD55-1205, and
SA55. Overall, these results illuminate the current constraints and pressures shaping SARS-CoV-2
evolution, and can help with e fforts to forecast possible future antigenic changes that may impact
vaccines or clinical antibodies.
Importance
This study measures how mutations to the spike of a SARS-CoV-2 variant that circulated in early
2025 a
ffect its function and recognition by both the polyclonal antibodies produced by the human
immune system and monoclonal antibodies used as prophylactics. These measurements are made
with a pseudovirus system that enables safe study of viral protein mutations using virions that can
only infect cells once. The study identi fies mutations that decrease recognition by current human
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antibody immunity; many of these mutations are increasingly being observed in new viral variants. It
also shows the importance of mutations that move the spike’s receptor binding domain up or
down. Overall, these results are useful for forecasting viral evolution and assessing which newly
emerging variants have reduced recognition by immunity and antibody prophylactics.
Introduction
Over the course of SARS-CoV-2 evolution in humans over the last half decade, the spike protein
has accumulated >60 amino-acid mutations (1–3). This evolution is driven by strong selective
pressure for spike to escape from the antibody immunity accumulating in the human population
(4–7) while retaining its ability to bind ACE2 receptor (8,9) and mediate cell entry (10,11). New
SARS-CoV-2 lineages carrying additional mutations in spike are constantly emerging, but it remains
challenging to predict which of these lineages have mutations that will enable them to be
evolutionary successful.
Deep mutational scanning is a powerful approach to measure how spike mutations a ffect
key functional and antigenic properties of spike (2,9,12–14), but the fact that both spike (8,15,16)
and human population immunity (17–20) are constantly evolving limit the utility of measurements
made using older strains and human antibodies for understanding newer variants. Here, we use
pseudovirus-based deep mutational scanning (2,21) to measure how thousands of mutations to
the spike of the recent KP.3.1.1 variant a ffect cell entry, receptor binding, RBD up/down motion,
and neutralization by human sera and therapeutic antibodies. Overall, our work provides detailed
maps of the functional and antigenic e
ffects of spike mutations that can help rationalize recent
trends in SARS-CoV-2 evolution and identify mutations that affect key protein properties.
Results
Pseudovirus-based deep mutational scanning of KP.3.1.1 spike
To measure how mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 spike affect cell entry, receptor binding and escape
polyclonal sera or therapeutic antibodies, we used pseudovirus-based deep mutational scanning
(Fig. 1A) (2,21). This method produces genotype-phenotype linked lentiviral particles that encode
uniquely barcoded spike variants and can be used to measure the e ffects of mutations on different
spike phenotypes (21) (Fig. S1A). Because these pseudoviruses are restricted to a single round of
infection and require helper plasmids to produce viral particles, they cannot cause disease or
transmit in humans, making them a safe tool for characterising mutations in viral proteins at
biosafety-level-2.
We designed pseudovirus-based deep mutational scanning libraries for the spike protein
from the recently circulating KP.3.1.1 strain. KP.3.1.1 is a descendant of the JN.1 lineage and was
one of the major variants circulating from the second half of 2024 to early 2025 (22). Its spike
shares many important antigenic mutations with the other current JN.1 descendant strains, and is
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closely related to the spikes currently recommended as options for inclusion in SARS-CoV-2
vaccines (JN.1, KP.2, and LP.8.1) (Fig. 1B) (23).
We designed the deep mutational scanning libraries to contain all evolutionarily accessible
and antigenically important mutations in the spike protein. Speci fically, we included all mutations
that have occurred at appreciable frequency during the SARS-CoV-2 evolution in humans, as well
as every possible amino-acid change at sites that have mutated frequently in recent variants and all
sites within the RBD. We produced two independent pseudovirus libraries (Lib-1 and Lib-2), which
contained 42,783 and 45,513 barcoded variants, respectively, and covered 95% of the 9,809
targeted amino-acid mutations with an average of 1.3 mutations per spike (Fig. S1B-C).
Mutation e
ff
ects on spike-mediated cell entry
We measured how mutations to KP.3.1.1 spike a ffect entry into 293T cells that were engineered to
express medium levels of the ACE2 receptor (24) (Fig. 2A and interactive heat map at
https://dms-vep.org/SARS-CoV-2_KP .3.1.1_spike_DMS/cell_entry.html). The measured e ffects of
mutations on cell entry were highly correlated between the two independent libraries (Fig. S1D). As
expected stop codons were highly deleterious for cell entry whereas amino acid mutations had
varied effects (Fig. 2A). Single-residue deletions were well tolerated at many sites in the N-terminus
domain (NTD), consistent with frequent NTD deletions in many circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants
(25) (Fig. 2A). Amino-acid mutations in the RBD had a range of e
ffects, with some sites intolerant
of mutations but others tolerant of many changes.
Our measurements suggest a possible reason why certain mutations have begun to
recurrently evolve in recent JN.1-descended strains related to KP.3.1.1 after being rare in earlier
variants. A number of these mutations—speci fically T22N, K182R, G184S, F186L, R190S, A435S,
and N487D—are better tolerated for cell entry in the KP.3.1.1 spike compared to the earlier
pre-JN.1 XBB.1.5 lineage (Fig. 2B), as assessed by comparing our current deep mutational
scanning to prior measurements for the XBB.1.5 spike (2). Therefore, shifts in mutational tolerance
for specific mutations may be a contributor to the recent recurrent selection for these mutations.
Mutation e
ff
ects on ACE2 binding
To determine how spike mutations a ffect receptor binding, we measured how well each spike
mutant pseudovirus was neutralized by soluble monomeric ACE2 protein (Fig. S2A). We and
others have previously shown that ACE2 binding a ffinity to spike is proportional to neutralization of
SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus by soluble ACE2 protein (2,26,27). Namely, mutations that increase
spike’s binding to ACE2 also increase pseudovirus neutralization by soluble ACE2 protein, and
mutations that decrease spike’s ACE2 binding decrease pseudovirus neutralization by soluble
ACE2. Therefore, incubating deep mutational scanning libraries with increasing amounts of
monomeric ACE2 protein allows us to measure how mutations a ffect ACE2 binding. Note that this
approach only works for spike mutants that retain at least some moderate ability to mediate
pseudovirus entry in ACE2-expressing cells. Among the spike mutations that retain su fficient cell
entry function, e ffects on cell entry and ACE2 binding show no correlation (Fig. S2B),
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demonstrating that cell entry and ACE2 binding are distinct phenotypes, and ACE2 binding is often
not the limiting factor for cell entry in our assays.
A variety of mutations both in the RBD and other regions of spike a ffect ACE2 binding, as
measured by soluble ACE2 neutralization (Fig. 3A-B and interactive heatmap at
https://dms-vep.org/SARS-CoV-2_KP .3.1.1_spike_DMS/receptor_binding.html). The substantial
effect of some mutations outside the RBD on ACE2 binding is because the interaction of the full
spike with ACE2 is impacted by several distinct mechanisms: direct interaction of the RBD with
ACE2, changes in RBD up (open) or down (closed) conformation, and changes to S1 shedding
(28–31). Interestingly, we measure mutations at sites distant to the RBD’s ACE2 binding motif to
have as large e ffects on ACE2 binding as mutations at sites in close proximity to ACE2,
emphasizing the importance of conformational changes to spike in a ffecting ACE2 binding (Fig.
3B). Many ACE2 distal RBD mutations with the strongest binding e ffects are at sites near the base
of the RBD in spike, suggesting their likely involvement in positioning the RBD in the up or down
conformation (eg, sites 332, 358, 390, 393, 395, 517 and 527; Fig. 3A-B and Fig S2C). Among
the sites in proximity to ACE2, certain mutations at site E493 cause the largest increase in receptor
binding (Fig. 3A-B). Notably site 493 interacts with ACE2 directly, recently substituted from Q to E
in parents of KP.3.1.1 and several other current lineages, and has been previously shown to
epistatically interact with two other recent mutations also present in KP.3.1.1 (L455S and F456L)
(7,16).
There is a good correlation between the e ffects of RBD mutations on ACE2 binding in our
KP.3.1.1 deep mutational scanning and similar data previously published for the XBB.1.5 spike (2)
(Fig. 3C). However, there are some mutations with di fferent effects on ACE2 binding in KP.3.1.1
and XBB.1.5, including A435S which increases binding to ACE2 in KP.3.1.1 but decreases binding
for XBB.1.5 (note this mutation also had contrasting e ffects on cell entry in the two spikes as
described above) (Fig. 3D). The A435S mutation has been rare for most of SARS-CoV-2’s
evolution, but has recently occurred independently in multiple lineages including the
JN.1-descendants NB.1.8.1, XEC.25, MC.10.1, MC.31, and NP.1 variants and a recent
BA.3-descendant saltation variant BA.3.2. In addition, E493D and E493N increase ACE2 binding
by the KP.3.1.1 spike, but in XBB.1.5 mutating site 493 from its initial identity of Q to any of E, D, or
N impairs ACE2 binding (Fig. 3D) (2,32).
Mutation e
ff
ects on serum neutralization
We measured how spike mutations a ffect neutralization by sera collected from seven human
individuals pre- and post-exposure by vaccination or infection with JN.1-descendant variants
(Table S1). All seven individuals were adults who had originally been imprinted by vaccination with
the early COVID-19 vaccine in 2021 followed by various further booster vaccinations and
infections. For most (although not all) of these individuals, exposure to a JN.1-descendant spike via
vaccination increased neutralizing serum titers against KP.3.1.1 (Fig. S3A-B).
We used the pseudovirus libraries to measure how the KP.3.1.1 spike mutations a ffected
neutralization by the sera from each individual both pre- and post-vaccination or infection with a
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JN-1 descendant spike. For the most part, mutations had similar e ffects on neutralization by sera
from each individual collected pre- versus post-vaccination or infection (Fig. 4 and S3C). Across all
sera, the sites where mutations caused the most escape from serum neutralization were primarily in
the RBD (Fig. 4 and interactive plot at
https://dms-vep.org/SARS-CoV-2_KP .3.1.1_spike_DMS/polyclonal_sera_escape.html). RBD
mutations at sites 332, 344, 357, 393, 428, 458, 470 and 518 caused the greatest serum escape
both pre- and post-vaccination or infection (Fig. 4A). Some sites outside the RBD also reduced
serum neutralization, including sites 50, 132, 200, 222 in NTD, 572 in SD1, and 852 in S2. Notably,
most of the sites where mutations caused the greatest escape in the RBD and all the strongest
sites of escape outside the RBD are ones where mutations a ffect ACE2 binding (Fig. 3B, and next
section), suggesting mutations at these sites impact serum neutralization largely changing the
RBD’s up/down conformation, thereby indirectly a ffecting binding by antibodies targeting potent
neutralizing epitopes on the RBD (2,33–35). However, there are also some sites of appreciable
escape where mutations do not a
ffect RBD up/down binding (e.g., 456, 458, 475, 478, 487); these
mutations likely directly escape binding by neutralizing antibodies rather than a ffecting RBD
up/down conformation.
While many mutations that reduce serum neutralization pre- and post-vaccination or
infection were shared among the di fferent sera, in a subset of individuals exposure to a
JN.1-descendant spike clearly shifts neutralization immunodominance. In adult-1, adult-3, and
adult-4 and adult-5, several RBD sites where mutations had little or no e ffect on serum
neutralization before JN.1-descendant spike exposure become the dominant escape sites after
vaccination or infection (Fig. 4B). These new escape sites include 403, 405, 475, 478, 487, 490
and 505. Notably, in circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants, many of these sites have recently acquired
mutations that reduce serum neutralization. For example, the XFJ, JN.1.18.5, LF.7.1.2, LF.7.2.1,
PC.2 and LP.8.1.9 variants all carry A475V, BA.3.2 carries K478N while NB.1.8.1 carries K478I,
and XFG carries N487D.
We validated the deep mutational scanning measurements of how mutations a ffect serum
neutralization using standard SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus neutralization assays (Fig. S4) (36). The
deep mutational scanning measurements correlated well with changes in IC50 values measured in
the standard neutralization assays (Fig. S4A). We also con
firmed via standard neutralization assays
that mutations A475V, H505E, K478I and N487D cause a larger reduction in the neutralization by
the serum from some individuals after versus before exposure to a JN.1-descendant spike (Fig.
S4B), consistent with the deep mutational scanning.
Sites where mutations a
ff
ect RBD up/down conformation
To identify sites in spike that a ffect RBD up/down conformation, we leveraged the previously noted
fact that mutations at these sites have opposing e ffects on ACE2 binding and serum antibody
neutralization escape: namely, mutations that put the RBD more in the up conformation increase
ACE2 binding but also enhance neutralization (2,33–35). Our measurements for the KP.3.1.1 spike
show this relationship clearly: there is a strong inverse correlation between serum neutralization
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escape and ACE2 binding for mutations that a ffect both these phenotypes but are distal from the
RBD’s ACE2-binding motif (Fig. 5A). This inverse correlation is due to the fact that positioning RBD
in the up conformation reveals the receptor-binding motif, which mediates binding to ACE2 but is
also targeted by many potent neutralizing antibodies. Therefore, mutations that put the RBD more
in the up conformation sensitize the spike to serum neutralization (negative escape values in our
measurements), while mutations that put the RBD more in the down conformation tend to cause
serum neutralization escape. By contrast, ACE2-proximal sites show no correlation between ACE2
binding and serum neutralization (Fig. 5A) because they often both interact with the receptor
directly and are directly targeted by neutralizing serum antibodies. Note, that some ACE2 proximal
sites may still modulate the RBD up/down conformation, but this modulation does not lead to the
aforementioned consistent pattern on ACE2 binding and neutralization because the direct e
ffects of
mutations at these sites both ACE2 binding and neutralizing antibody binding can overwhelm the
effect of the RBD up/down conformation modulation.
To estimate how much each site a ffects RBD up/down conformation, we calculated the
correlation between serum neutralization escape and ACE2 binding at each site, weighting it by the
root mean square e ffect of mutations at each site on both phenotypes (Fig. 5B and interactive plot
at https://dms-vep.org/SARS-CoV-2_KP .3.1.1_spike_DMS/RBD_movement.html). Among the
sites that stand out as strongly a ffecting RBD up/down conformation are many clade-de fining
mutations as well as some of the most frequently mutated sites through various periods of
SARS-CoV-2 evolution in humans. Site 222 was one of the most frequently mutated sites just
before Omicron emerged (37), sites 371 and 373 fixed mutations in all Omicron lineages (38), and
sites 332, 356 and 570 fixed mutations in the BA.2.86-lineage which is the ancestor of most
currently circulating strains (39). The prevalence of mutations at sites that modulate RBD up/down
conformation in major SARS-CoV-2 lineages suggests a strong selective pressure to balance
receptor binding with resistance to neutralization by RBD-directed antibodies; indeed evidence
suggest that multiple recent SARS-CoV-2 variants have acquired mutations that position the RBD
in a more closed conformation (34,40).
E
ff
ects of mutations on neutralization by clinically relevant monoclonal antibodies
We next determined how mutations to spike a ffect neutralization by three clinically relevant
monoclonal antibodies: BD55-1205 (12), SA55 (41), and VYD222 (42) (Fig. 6). BD55-1205 and
SA55 have maintained high neutralizing potency against currently circulating variants (12). SA55 is
in clinical trials in China (41), BD55-1205 is licensed to Moderna Inc. (12), and VYD222 is currently
the only SARS-CoV-2 antibody authorized for use in the USA for pre-exposure prophylaxis in
immunocompromised individuals (it is the antibody in Pemivibart) (44). Knowledge of which
mutations reduce neutralization by these antibodies is important for ongoing surveillance, as all
other clinically approved SARS-CoV-2 antibodies have now been escaped by viral mutations
(41,45).
All three antibodies bind to sites around the RBD’s receptor binding motif, with SA55 and
VYD222 sharing especially similar structural epitopes (41,46). Our deep mutational scanning shows
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that all three antibodies are strongly a ffected by mutations at several sites in the range from 500 to
505, although the exact sites in this range where mutations have the most impact varies among the
antibodies (Fig. 6). BD55-1205 neutralization is also a ffected by mutations at sites 456, 475 and
493, all of which interact with ACE2 (Fig. 6A). Most changes to 456 and 475 sites are deleterious
for ACE2 binding (see letter colors in logoplots in Fig 6), although A475V, which measurably
escapes BD55-1205, is only mildly deleterious for ACE2 binding and has recently occurred in
several JN.1-descendant lineages. SA55 is a ffected by mutations to sites 440 and 445, and to a
lesser degree by mutations at 493 (Fig. 6B). VYD222 is also a ffected by mutations at site 440 in
addition to mutations at sites 405 and 403 (Fig. 6C). Because sites 500-505 are primarily
accessible in the RBD’s up position, all three antibodies are a
ffected by mutations that modulate
RBD up/down movement, as has been noted previously (12,47,48). In particular, some mutations
at sites 332, 357, and 427 a ffect neutralization by all three antibodies to various degrees, despite
the fact none of these sites are in the direct structural epitopes, presumably by putting the RBD
more in the down conformation and so partially shielding the antibody epitopes.
Interestingly, in our pseudovirus deep mutational scanning, mutations at site 505 cause
significantly more escape from all three of the antibodies than reported in previously published
yeast-based RBD-only deep mutational scanning data suggest (Fig. S5) (6,41). We hypothesize
that this di fference is because RBD-only assays measure just the direct e ffects of mutations on
antibody-RBD binding, whereas the pseudovirus deep mutational scanning also measures the
impacts of mutations on RBD up/down movement that a ffect RBD epitope accessibility in the
context of full spike. Indeed, mutations at RBD motion-regulating sites 332, 357 and 427 a ffect
neutralization by all three antibodies in full-spike but not in yeast-based RBD-only deep mutational
scanning (Fig. S5). Similarly, mutations at site 505 both directly a ffect antibody-RBD binding and
the up/down motion of the RBD due to this site’s location in the inter-protomer interface in the
down RBD spike conformation. While site 505 is likely under signi ficant evolutionary constraint
because most mutations at that site reduce ACE2 binding, our serum-escape measurements
described above suggest this site may be starting to come under appreciable pressure for
mutations from population immunity.
Discussion
Here we have measured how mutations to the KP.3.1.1 spike a ffect several distinct phenotypes:
cell entry, ACE2 binding, serum neutralization, RBD up/down motion, and neutralization by key
monoclonal antibodies. These measurements provide several important insights into the selection
pressures and molecular constraints currently shaping SARS-CoV-2 evolution.
First, our measurements underscore the substantial impact of mutations that a ffect RBD
up/down motion on receptor binding and antibody neutralization. In the context of the full spike,
mutations that a ffect RBD up/down motion impact ACE2 binding as much as mutations at RBD
sites that interact with ACE2 directly. Mutations that a ffect RBD up/down motion have a consistent
signature: they have opposite e ffects on ACE2 binding and serum neutralization, since putting the
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RBD more up increases the accessibility of the receptor-binding motif to bind ACE2 but also
makes it more susceptible to RBD-targeting neutralizing antibodies (31,49). Many sites that a ffect
RBD up/down motion have mutated in major lineages during the course of SARS-CoV-2 evolution
in humans, emphasizing the importance of the balancing e ffects of RBD up/down movement on
viral fitness via impacts on ACE2 binding and serum neutralization. Note that mutations that put the
RBD in a more up conformation may promote the cross-species transfer of coronaviruses by
increasing binding to receptors from new species (30,50,51); it appears that the spike of the first
SARS-CoV-2 strains identi fied in humans had the RBD in a relatively more up conformation, and
subsequent evolution has selected for mutations that position the RBD more down (34,40).
Second, our measurements identify sites where mutations cause the largest reductions in
neutralization by human serum antibodies; there are already newly emerging viral lineages that
carry some of these mutations. Most of the sites where mutations most impact serum
neutralization are in the RBD as expected from prior work showing that RBD-directed antibodies
are usually responsible for most serum neutralizing activity (52–54), although mutations at some
NTD sites also have a substantial e ffect. Some of the top RBD sites of serum antibody escape are
likely directly in the epitopes of neutralizing antibodies that sterically block receptor binding (e.g.,
sites 456, 458, 475, 478, 487); mutations at some of these sites have recently been observed in
new SARS-CoV-2 lineages. However, mutations at NTD and RBD sites that a ffect RBD up/down
motion and so a ffect serum neutralization indirectly by conformational masking, often have as
much impact on serum neutralization as direct escape mutations in key RBD epitopes. As
mentioned above, some of these up/down affecting sites have mutated in major lineages; however,
such conformational escape is constrained by the fact that mutations that reduce serum
neutralization by putting the RBD in a more down conformation also reduce ACE2 binding, and so
may need to be buffered by other ACE2 affinity increasing mutations.
Third, we find that exposure to a JN.1-descendant spike (via vaccination or infection) often
shifts the neutralization immunodominance hierarchy to new epitopes. Speci fically, for some
individuals, vaccination or infection with a JN.1-descendant variant leads to mutations at new sites
causing large reductions in neutralization; these new sites include several (e.g., 475, 478, and 487)
that have acquired mutations in very recent SARS-CoV-2 lineages. Our data cannot determine the
underlying mechanism responsible for this shift in serum neutralizing speci
ficity. Once individuals
have been imprinted by SARS-CoV-2 infection or vaccination, most of the neutralizing response to
subsequent vaccinations and infections is driven by activation of pre-existing cross-reactive B cells
(26,55–58). However, the a ffinity maturation of these pre-existing B cells can shift the balance of
epitope targeting in polyclonal sera (56). In addition, su fficient exposures to new variants can
activate naive B cells (58,59). The shifts in serum neutralizing speci ficity we observe after exposure
to a JN.1-descendant variation could be due to some combination of boosting of pre-existing
cross-reactive B-cells that were previously subdominant, a ffinity maturation of pre-existing B-cells
to better target recently mutated epitopes, or activation of naive B-cells targeting new epitopes.
Regardless of the underlying mechanism, the fact that exposure to recent variants changes the
neutralization immunodominance hierarchy supports the idea that updating vaccines to more
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recently circulating variants (23) can shift the speci ficity of neutralizing antibodies to target newer
SARS-CoV-2 variants.
The fact that exposure to recent JN.1-descendant variants can shift which spike mutations
affect neutralization by the serum antibodies of imprinted adults highlights the increasing
heterogeneity in antibody immunity across the human population. We recently showed that the
epitopes targeted by the neutralizing antibodies of young children who had experienced just a
single infection with a recent variant di ffer dramatically from those targeted by adults imprinted by
infection or vaccination early in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (20). The current study only examined
serum from imprinted adults, but finds heterogeneity even among such adults depending on
whether they have been exposed to a JN.1-descendant variant. This increasing immune
heterogeneity across the population may favor more co-circulation of multiple SARS-CoV-2
lineages rather than repeated rapid evolutionary sweeps by a single variant (60,61).
We also mapped how mutations a ffect neutralization by three clinically relevant monoclonal
antibodies (BD55-1205, SA55 and VYD222) that have so far retained neutralizing activity against
nearly all SARS-CoV-2 lineages. These antibodies target functionally constrained RBD epitopes
that overlap with the ACE2 binding motif and are only fully accessible in the up RBD conformation,
and our data show that neutralization by all three antibodies is reduced by mutations that put the
RBD in a more down conformation. In particular, mutations to site 505, which both a
ffects RBD
motion and forms part of the epitope for all three antibodies, have a greater impact on pseudovirus
neutralization than was apparent in prior RBD-only yeast-display deep mutational scanning (6). Site
505 remains under substantial constraint, since most mutations at that site both reduce direct
RBD-ACE2 binding a ffinity (16) and put the RBD in a more up conformation that increases its
susceptibility to RBD-directed serum neutralizing antibodies. However, our results show that site
505 is now a serum neutralization escape mutation for some individuals who have been exposed to
a JN.1-descendant variant, suggesting such individuals now produce appreciable neutralizing
antibodies directly targeting site 505. Therefore, site 505 might be under increasing pressure to
mutate in circulating SARS-CoV-2 lineages, although additional changes to spike would likely be
needed to overcome the pleiotropic e
ffects such a mutation would have on ACE2 binding and RBD
up/down conformation.
Acknowledgements
We thank David Veesler from University of Washington for providing soluble ACE2 protein. We thank Ryan Hisner and
Federico Gueli for useful comments on the manuscript. This research was funded by grants from the NIAID/NIH awarded
to JDB: P01AI167966 and the SAVES program (contract 75N93021C00015, option 18.C). JDB is an investigator at the
Howard Hughes Medical Institute. This research was also supported by the Genomics & Bioinformatics Shared
Resource, RRID:SCR_022606, of the Fred Hutch/University of Washington Cancer Consortium (P30 CA015704), by the
Flow Cytometry Shared Resource, RRID:SCR_022613, of the Fred Hutch/University of Washington/Seattle Children’s
Cancer Consortium (P30 CA015704), and by Fred Hutch Scienti
fi
c Computing, NIH grants S10-OD-020069 and
S10-OD-028685. SH is a postdoctoral fellow of the Translational Data Science Integrated Research Center at the Fred
Hutchinson Cancer Center. BBL is a Washington Research Foundation postdoctoral fellow. This material is based upon
work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. DGE-2140004. Any
opinion,
fi
ndings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not
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necessarily re
fl
ect the views of the National Science Foundation. This manuscript is the result of funding in whole or in
part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is subject to the NIH Public Access Policy. Through acceptance of this
federal funding, NIH has been given a right to make this manuscript publicly available in PubMed Central upon the O
ffi
cial
Date of Publication, as de
fi
ned by NIH.
Competing interests
JDB consults for Apriori Bio, Invivyd, GSK, P
fi
zer, and the Vaccine Company. JDB and BD are inventors on Fred Hutch
licensed patents related to viral deep mutational scanning. HYC has served on advisory boards for Merck, Roche, Vir,
and Abbvie.
Methods
Data availability and interactive fi
gures
All data described in this manuscript are available as raw numerical values and in various interactive fi
gure formats:
- Interactive fi
gures can be found at a website associated with this manuscript
https://dms-vep.org/SARS-CoV-2_KP .3.1.1_spike_DMS/. The website homepage has interactive fi
gures
organised by phenotype and by clicking on each phenotype the reader can fi
nd key plots, descriptions and
links to raw numerical values used to make the interactive plots.
- The computational analysis pipeline used to analyse deep mutational scanning data and make all associated
manuscript fi
gures is on GitHub at https://github.com/dms-vep/SARS-CoV-2_KP .3.1.1_spike_DMS .
Sequencing data associated with this manuscript has been deposited to the SRA under BioProject PRJNA1305008..
Deep mutational scanning library design
Deep mutational scanning libraries were designed to cover all possible mutations in the RBD and all tolerated and
frequently mutated changes outside the RBD. To identify tolerated and frequently mutated sites we included mutations
that occur more than 50 times among SARS-CoV-2 genomes deposited on GISAID (62), mutations that occur at least 10
times on UShER (63) spike phylogenetic tree, any mutation present in a recent SARS-CoV-2 lineage (at the time of library
design these lineages where BA.2.86, JN.1, JN.1.11.1, and KP.3), and any mutations that occurred at least once in a
Pango designated lineage (64). In addition, we introduced all possible amino-acid mutations at sites that fi
t any of the
following criteria: mutated at least 50 times in a recent SARS-CoV-2 lineage, mutated along UShER spike phylogenetic
tree at least 2500 times, mutated repeatedly at least 3 times among any Pango designated lineages, or had mutated in
KP.3.1.1 variant relative to Wuhan-Hu-1 sequence. The above criteria were also applied for deletions but deletions were
only included if they were present at any site in the NTD or positions 331-354 or 434-508 in the RBD. Several mutations
and sites to saturate were also included manually in library design regardless of their frequency counts based on reports
of these mutations occurring in circulating lineages at the time of library design. The list of manually included mutations
as well as parameters for all other selection criteria is at
https://github.com/dms-vep/SARS-CoV-2_KP .3.1.1_spike_DMS/blob/main/library_design/con
fi
g.yaml. The full list of all
mutations included in the library design is at https://github.com/dms-vep/SARS-CoV-2_KP .3.1.1_spike_DMS/blob/main/
library_design/results/mutations_to_make.csv .
Overview of library construction using Golden Gate assembly
Golden Gate assembly was used to create KP.3.1.1 spike coding plasmid libraries containing all the designed mutations
(65–71) (Fig. S6). Due to the length of the spike sequence and the number of mutations we wanted to include in the
library it was cost-prohibitive to synthesize the spike gene as a single fragment for all spike variants we wanted to include.
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We therefore subdivided spike into 17 overlapping tiles between 250-290 nt in length (close to the maximum length that
can be synthesized by Twist Bioscience as a single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) oligo pool) (Fig. S6A), computationally
designed a pool of oligos, where each oligo is one of the tiles with a mutation we wanted to include in the library (Fig.
S6B), and ordered all the oligos pooled together as ssDNA fragments from Twist Bioscience. From that ssDNA pool we
performed 17 individual PCR reactions to amplify oligos belonging to each tile using primers with fl
anking sequences
containing BsmBI restriction sites (Fig. S6C). Golden Gate assembly was then used to assemble each tile pool and
fl
anking spike sequences unique to each tile into a shuttle vector (Fig. S6D). The assembled shuttle vector pool was
electroporated into bacteria and next day plasmids were recovered for all 17 pools. The full spike sequence was ampli
fi
ed
from each pool using primers with fl
anking sequences that match lentiviral backbone as well as a barcode sequence in
the reverse primer (Fig. S6E). All 17 barcoded spike pools were then pooled equimolarly and HiFi assembly was used to
clone the library (Fig. S6F), which after pooling had all designed mutations throughout the spike, into a lentivirus
backbone.
The sequence of the codon optimized KP.3.1.1 spike in the fi
nal lentiviral backbone used to make
pseudovirus-based libraries is at https://github.com/dms-vep/SARS-CoV-2_KP .3.1.1_spike_DMS/blob/main/library_
design/data/4838_pH2rU3_ForInd_KP .3.1.1_sinobiological_CMV_ZsGT2APurR.gb. Sequences for all 17 overlapping tiles
are at https://github.com/dms-vep/SARS-CoV-2_KP .3.1.1_spike_DMS/blob/main/library_design/data/KP311_GAA
_assembly_fragments.csv. Tiles were designed manually making sure that the overhangs for the fragments that will be
assembled during the Golden Gate assembly step are unique for each fragment and have a sequence compatible with
high fi
delity assembly (72). The 1st and the 17th tile overlapped with a pGGAselect DNA shuttle vector that is provided in
NEBridge® Golden Gate Assembly Kit (BsmBI-v2) (E1602L). The oligo pool was designed using a script available at
https://github.com/jbloomlab/gga_codon_muts_oligo_design. The script reads in tile sequences and desired mutation
spreadsheet and generates a fasta fi
le with oligo sequences that can be uploaded directly for ordering oligo pool from
Twist Biosciences. We set the oligo design script to intentionally include 0.005 fraction of unmutated sequences for each
tile in order to have some wild-type KP.3.1.1 spike in the
fi
nal pseudovirus library, as well as avoid any mutation design
that would introduce BsmBI cut sites. Sequences for designed oligos covering all 17 tiles is at
https://github.com/dms-vep/SARS-CoV-2_KP .3.1.1_spike_DMS/blob/main/library_design/results/mutagenesis_oligos.fa.
A GitHub repository that selects the mutations to be included in the library and designs mutated oligos for each tile is at
https://github.com/dms-vep/SARS-CoV-2_KP .3.1.1_spike_DMS/tree/main/library_design.
Deep mutational scanning plasmid library cloning using Golden Gate Assembly
To amplify individual tile pools from one ssDNA oligo pool we performed 17 PCR reactions. For each reaction we used
KOD Hot Start Master Mix (Sigma-Aldrich, Cat. No. 71842), 0.3 µM of forward and reverse primer and 2 ng of ssDNA
oligo pool. Each reaction was started at 95°C for 2 min and then went through 23 cycles of 95°C for 20 s, 62°C for 10 s,
68°C for 25 s. To amplify
fl
anking spike sequences for each tile we used KOD Hot Start Master Mix, 0.3 µM of forward
and reverse primer and 1 ng of KP.3.1.1 spike coding lentiviral backbone (see above section for plasmid map). The full list
for forward and reverse primers used in both reactions is at https://github.com/dms-vep/SARS-CoV-2_KP .3.1.1_spike
_DMS/blob/main/library_design/data/primers.csv. Expected size products were gel and Ampure XP bead puri
fi
ed (1:3
DNA to bead).
We then performed Golden Gate assembly using NEBridge Golden Gate Assembly Kit (BsmBI-V2). For the
assembly we used 100 fmol of ampli
fi
ed tile pool and fl
anking spike sequence fragments each and 50 fmol of
pGGAselect shuttle plasmid (provided in NEBridge Golden Gate Assembly Kit). The assembly reactions were incubated
at 42°C for 1 min followed by 16°C for 1 min for 30 cycles, followed by 60°C for 5 min. The reactions were then puri
fi
ed
using Ampure XP beads and eluted in 20 µl of water. 1 µl of puri
fi
ed assembly was then used to electroporate NEB®
10-beta Electrocompetent E. coli cells (C3020K). Electroporated cells were then suspended in 1 ml of recovery media
and shaken at 37°C for 1 hour. After recovery, cells were spun down, recovery media was removed and cells were
resuspended in chloramphenicol-containing LB media for incubation at 37°C with shaking overnight. High transformation
e
ffi
ciency (~1 million colonies per tile library) was con
fi
rmed by diluting a small amount of recovered cells, plating on
chloramphenicol-containing agar plates overnight and counting colony forming units the next day. High transformation
e
ffi
ciency at this and later steps is important to avoid any barcode duplication at later virus production steps due to
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lentivirus recombination. Note also that here and in later electroporation steps we used liquid cultures to amplify our
plasmid libraries as opposed to high-density spread on bacterial culture plates we used in the past as this has been
shown to be su
ffi
cient for a uniform plasmid ampli
fi
cation (73). After overnight growth, shuttle plasmid libraries for each
tile were recovered using QIAprep Spin Miniprep Kit (Cat. No. 27106X4).
Next, the spike libraries for each tile were ampli
fi
ed and barcoded. We performed PCR on each tile plasmid
library using KOD Hot Start Master Mix, 10 ng of plasmid library and 0.3 µM of forward
(5′-gcacgcgCAGCCGAGCCACATCGCTCA-3′) and reverse (5′-
gcggaactccactaggaacatttctctctcgaaTCTAGANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNAGATCGGAAGAGCGTCGTGTAGGGAAAGAG-3′)
primers, the latter primer contained a 16 nt barcode. After ampli
fi
cation each spike tile library was puri
fi
ed by gel and
Ampure XP beads. Note gel puri
fi
cation at this step is important because we found cloning of some tiles produces a
minor amount of truncated spike and gel puri
fi
cation allowed us to recover only the full length products. All barcoded
spike libraries were then pooled equimolarly. We made two equimolar pools of barcoded spike libraries to make library-1
and library-2 biological replicates. All subsequent steps in library production were done in parallel for library-1 and
library-2. NEBuilder® HiFi DNA Assembly Master Mix (E2621S) was then used to assemble barcoded spikes into a
lentivirus backbone, as described previously (21). See lentivirus backbone structure in Fig. S6F; plasmid for the
backbone is available at Addgene #204579). Assembled backbones were electroporated in electrocompetent bacteria
and plasmids were ampli
fi
ed using liquid culture, as described above. As before we con
fi
rmed high electroporation
e
ffi
ciency at this step and cultured at least 10 million colony forming units per library replicate.
Production of cell-stored deep mutational scanning libraries
To produce the cell-stored deep mutational scanning libraries we used a method described previously (Fig. S1A) (21). In
brief, we fi
rst used lentivirus backbones that carried barcoded spike libraries to produce VSV-G pseudotyped viruses. To
do so we transfected two 6-well plates of 293T cells with lentivirus helper plasmids (BEI: NR-52517, NR-52519,
NR-52518) and VSV-G expression plasmid (Addgene #204156). 48 hours after transfection we collected VSV-G
pseudotyped viruses from cell supernatant and used them to infect 293T-rtTA cells at low multiplicity of infection (<0.01)
so that most infected cells were infected with only one viral variant. We then used puromycin to select for successfully
transduced cells. The transduced cell library pool was then expanded and frozen at >15 M cells per aliquot in liquid
nitrogen until further use.
Long-read sequencing for variant-barcode linkage
To build a variant to barcode lookup table for the deep mutational scanning libraries, we rescued VSV-G pseudotyped
viruses from the cell-stored libraries. We use VSV-G pseudotyping at this stage to rescue all virus variants from the cells
regardless of how deleterious a mutation in spike may be. To do so we transfected library cells with lentivirus helper
plasmids and VSV-G expression plasmid and 48 hours after transfection we recovered VSV-G pseudoviruses from cell
supernatant, puri
fi
ed them from cell debris using 0.45 µm SFCA Nalgene 500mL Rapid-Flow fi
lter unit (Cat. No.
09-740-44B), and concentrated using Pierce Protein Concentrator (ThermoFisher, 88537). We then used ~10 million
transcription units of VSV-G pseudotyped viruses to infect 293T cells and 15 hours after infection recovered
non-integrated viral genomes using QIAprep Spin Miniprep Kit. We then performed two rounds of PCR to amplify the
barcoded spikes in the recovered lentivirus genomes, minimizing the number of PCR cycles to avoid strand-switching.
Long-read circular consensus sequencing was performed on ampli
fi
ed virus genomes using PacBio Sequel IIe machine.
Consensus sequence for each variant was determined using at least 2 CCSs per barcode. Variant-barcode lookup table
for both biological KP.3.1.1 library replicates is at
https://github.com/dms-vep/SARS-CoV-2_KP .3.1.1_spike_DMS/blob/main/results/variants/codon_variants.csv. On
average each variant had 1.25 and 1.27 mutations per spike for library-1 and library-2, respectively.
Measurement of mutation e
ff
ects on cell entry e
ff
ect
KP.3.1.1 spike pseudotyped viruses were produced from cell-stored libraries as described previously (2). 150 million
library cells were plated into 5-layer fl
asks (Corning Falcon 875cm² Rectangular Straight Neck Cell Culture Multi-Flask,
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Cat. No. 353144) in the presence of 1 µg/ml of doxycycline to induce spike expression from TRE3G promoter in the
lentivirus backbone. Next day cells were transfected with 50 µg of each lentiviral helper plasmid and during transfection
cell media was replaced with fresh serum-free media (Opti-MEM supplemented with 0.1% heat-inactivated FBS, 0.3%
bovine serum albumin, 100 µg/mL of calcium chloride, 100 U/mL penicillin, and 100 µg/mL streptomycin). Serum free
media was used because it allows better virus concentration in protein columns as FBS tends to clog column
fi
lters. 48
hours after transfection cell supernatant was collected, puri
fi
ed from cell debris and concentrated using protein columns.
Protein column concentrated virus titers varied between 12-25 million transcription units per ml. VSV-G pseudotyped
viruses were also produced in parallel to spike pseudotyped libraries, using protocol described in the section above. For
cell entry e
ff
ect measurements both 3 million transcription units of spike pseudotyped libraries and 10 million transcription
units VSV-G pseudotyped libraries were used to infect medium-ACE2 (24) cells and 293T cells, respectively. For spike
pseudotyped library infections cells were plated in the presence of 2.5 µg/ml of amphotericin B (Sigma, Cat. No. A2942),
which we have shown in the past increases virus titers (21). 15 hours after infection non-integrated viral genomes were
recovered using QIAprep Spin Miniprep Kit and amplicon libraries were prepared for illumina sequencing as described
previously using dual indexing for each sample to avoid index hopping on certain sequencing platforms (21). Sequencing
was performed on NovaSeq X Plus and NextSeq 2000 platforms.
Mutation e
ff
ects on cell entry were calculated using log enrichment ratio: , 𝑙𝑜𝑔2 𝑛
𝑣
𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑡 / 𝑛
𝑤𝑡
𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑡
⎡⎢
⎣
⎤
⎥
⎦/ 𝑛
𝑣
𝑝𝑟𝑒 / 𝑛
𝑤𝑡
𝑝𝑟𝑒
⎡
⎢
⎣
⎤
⎥
⎦
( )
where is variant count post-infection (spike pseudotyped virus infection), is variant count pre infection (VSV-G 𝑛
𝑣
𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑛
𝑣
𝑝𝑟𝑒
pseudotyped virus infection) and and are unmutated variant counts post- and pre-infection. The multidms 𝑛
𝑤𝑡
𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑛
𝑤𝑡
𝑝𝑟𝑒
(74) package was used to fi
t global epistasis models (75) on variant e
ff
ect data to estimate the e
ff
ects of individual
mutations from the full libraries of both singly and multiply mutated spike variants. The values reported here are the
median across the measurements with all replicates of both libraries.
Measurement of mutation e
ff
ects on receptor binding
To measure how mutations to spike a
ff
ect ACE2 binding we used soluble monomeric ACE2. Monomeric ACE2 was
produced as described previously (2). First, we mixed 1.5 million transcription units of spike pseudotyped library virus per
sample with RDPro pseudotyped virus at 1-2 % of total transcription units used. Use and production of RDPro
pseudotyped virus was described previously (2). RDPro is used in our experiments as a non-neutralizable standard to
convert sequencing counts to fractional neutralization of each variant at each ACE2 concentration as described
previously (2). The library virus was then mixed with increasing concentrations of soluble monomeric ACE2 and incubated
at 37°C for 30 min. The ACE2 concentrations were selected such that they would cover most of the KP.3.1.1 spike
pseudotyped virus neutralization range in order to identify mutations that both increase (spike variants that are neutralized
well at low ACE2 concentrations) and decrease (spike variants that are neutralized at high ACE2 concentrations) ACE2
binding; speci
fi
c concentrations used were 6, 13, 27, 54, and 115 µg/ml. After incubation, libraries were used to infect
medium-ACE2 cells in the presence of 2.5 µg/ml of amphotericin B and 15 h post infection non-integrated viral genomes
were recovered and prepared for Illumina sequencing as described previously (21). After converting the sequencing
counts to the fractional neutralization using the non-neutralized RDPro standard (2), we analyzed the data using a
biophysical model implemented in the polyclonal software package (https://github.com/jbloomlab/polyclonal )(76) to
determine the e
ff
ect of each mutation on ACE2 neutralization, reporting the values such that positive e
ff
ects indicate
improved ACE2 binding (higher neutralization by soluble ACE2). We performed ACE2 binding experiments with both
library-1 and library-2 biological replicates. The values reported here are the median across both replicates. Mutations
e
ff
ects on ACE2 binding are shown at https://dms-vep.org/SARS-CoV-2_KP .3.1.1_spike_DMS/receptor_binding.html.
Measurement of mutation e
ff
ects on serum and antibody neutralization
Before performing sera and antibody selection experiments with deep mutational scanning libraries we determined their
potency by performing pseudovirus neutralization assays on viruses pseudotyped with KP.3.1.1 spike. Pseudovirus
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neutralization assays were performed as described previously (36) and in Standard pseudovirus neutralization assays
section below. Before use, all sera were inactivated for 1 h at 56°C.
For each sample 1.5 million transcription units of spike pseudotyped library virus were mixed with RDPro
pseudotyped virus at 1-2 % of total transcription units used. For each sera we performed selection at three
concentrations aiming to neutralize more than 60% of library variants in at least two of these concentrations. Our starting
serum dilution was twice the IC99 value as determined by standard pseudovirus neutralization, which typically
signi
fi
cantly underestimates neutralization achieved for deep mutational scanning (perhaps due to di
ff
ering amounts of
spike on the surface of pseudoviruses used in standard neutralization assay versus library virus, or depletion of antibody
molecules by the higher virion concentration in the library experiments). An example of neutralization achieved by di
ff
erent
serum concentration can be seen here https://dms-vep.org/SARS-CoV-2_KP .3.1.1_spike_DMS/notebooks/avg_escape_
antibody_escape_adult-1_pre_vaccination.html in the probability escape plots. Generally, serum escape probabilities >
0.4 allow identi
fi
cation of mutations that a
ff
ect serum neutralization. Antibodies we used the following concentrations:
BD55-1205 these concentrations were 0.73, 2.18, and 6.55 µg/ml, for SA55 0.32, 0.95, and 2.84 µg/ml, and for
VYD222 100, 300, and 900 µg/ml. In standard pseudovirus neutralization assays all these concentrations were above
IC99 value, but in deep mutational scanning data these ranged between IC50-IC99 for BD55-1205, IC5-IC75 for SA55
and IC94-IC99 for VYD222. After incubation, virus mixtures were used to infect medium-ACE2 cells in the presence of
2.5 µg/ml of amphotericin B and 15 h post infection non-integrated viral genomes were recovered and prepared for
illumina sequencing as described previously (21).
To determine mutations which a
ff
ect serum or antibody neutralization we used a biophysical model from
polyclonal (v6.16) package (76), which is implemented in dms-vep-pipeline-3 (v3.27.0)
https://github.com/dms-vep/dms-vep-pipeline-3/tree/main.
Mean and individual sera escape plots and links to raw numeric escape values for each sera are at
https://dms-vep.org/SARS-CoV-2_KP .3.1.1_spike_DMS/polyclonal_sera_escape.html. Interactive plots showing escape
for BD55-1205, SA55 and VYD22 antibodies are at
https://dms-vep.org/SARS-CoV-2_KP .3.1.1_spike_DMS/antibody_escape.html. The latter link also contains interactive
structure visualizations showing deep mutational scanning measured escape in the context of RBD bound to each of the
antibodies.
Estimate of mutation e
ff
ects on RBD up/down motion
To quantify a site’s e
ff
ect on RBD up/down motion we used the following formula:
𝑆𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑜𝑛 𝑅𝐵𝐷 𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 = 𝑅 𝑠 ×− 1 × 1
𝑛𝑠 𝑖=1
𝑛
∑ 𝑒𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑒 𝑠,𝑖
2
× 1
𝑛𝑠 𝑖=1
𝑛
∑ 𝑏𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠,𝑖
2
where is Pearson correlation between mutation e
ff
ects on serum escape (averaged across all sera) and ACE2 binding 𝑅
for site . Positive R values were set to zero and then R was multiplied by negative 1. The root mean square of mutation 𝑠
e
ff
ects on serum escape is calculated as , where is the measured serum escape e
ff
ect 1
𝑛𝑠 𝑖=1
𝑛
∑ 𝑒𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑒 𝑠,𝑖
2
𝑒𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑒𝑠,𝑖
(averaged across all sera) of mutation at site , and is the number of mutations measured at site , and 𝑛 𝑠 𝑛𝑠 𝑠
is the root mean square of mutation e
ff
ects on ACE2 binding. 1
𝑛𝑠 𝑖=1
𝑛
∑ 𝑏𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠,𝑖
2
Comparison with prior XBB.1.5 spike deep mutational scanning
Pseudovirus based deep mutational scanning data for XBB.1.5 spike was published previously in Dadonaite et al (2024).
That dataset included two spike libraries: full spike deep mutational scanning library, where a subset of mutations was
included throughout the spike protein, and RBD-only library, where all possible mutations were introduced only in the
RBD. Fig. 3C compares ACE2 binding data for KP.3.1.1 deep mutational scanning libraries with full spike XBB.1.5
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libraries and Fig. 3D compares ACE2 binding data for KP.3.1.1 deep mutational scanning libraries and XBB.1.5
RBD-only libraries for sites 435 and 493.
Standard pseudovirus neutralization assays
Desired mutations were cloned into KP.3.1.1 spike expression plasmid https://github.com/dms-vep/SARS-CoV-2_
KP .3.1.1_spike_DMS/blob/main/KP311_validation_notebooks/plasmid_maps/HDM_KP .3.1.1.gb and sequence was
con
fi
rmed using whole plasmid sequencing. Spike pseudotyped lentiviruses were rescued by transfecting 293T cells with
spike expression plasmids, Gag/Pol (BEI: NR-52517) helper plasmid and pHAGE6_Luciferase_IRES_ZsGreen backbone.
48 hours post transfection virus-containing cell supernatants were collected and titrated. Neutralization assays were
performed as described in Crawford et al. (2020) using medium-ACE2 cells (24) in the presence of 2.5 µg/ml of
amphotericin B. For all neutralization assays starting dilution was 0.05 and we performed eight 3-fold serial dilutions.
Fraction infectivity at each dilution was determined relative to serum free controls and neutcurve (V2.1.0) package (77)
was used to fi
t Hill curves to fraction infectivity data.
Antibody Production
Antibodies were ordered from Genscript Biotech using published variable sequences (12,41,42,78). Variable sequences
and complete expressed polypeptide sequences are speci
fi
ed in Table S2. These sequences were codon-optimized,
cloned into expression vectors, and expressed in Chinese hamster ovary-derived cells. Heavy chain variable sequences
were cloned into a human IgG1 backbone. The light chain variable sequences for BD55-1205 and SA55 were cloned
into a human kappa light chain backbone; VYD222 was cloned into a human lambda light chain backbone.
Cells
293T, 293T-rtTA, medium-ACE2 and cell-stored library cells were all grown in D10 media (Dulbecco’s Modi
fi
ed Eagle
Medium with 10% heat-inactivated fetal bovine serum, 2 mM l-glutamine, 100 U/mL penicillin, and 100 μg/mL
streptomycin). For deep mutational scanning library and 293T-rtTA cells tetracycline-free FBS was used. Medium-ACE2
cells were grown in the presence of 2 µg/ml doxycycline, which induced ACE2 expression in these cells.
Ethics statement
Pre- and post-vaccination or infection sera were collected with informed consent from participants in the prospective
longitudinal Hospitalized or Ambulatory Adults with Respiratory Viral Infections (HAARVI) study. The study was approved
by University of Washington Institutional Review Board (#STUDY00000959).
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Figures
Figure 1. Measurement of di
ff
erent spike phenotypes using KP.3.1.1 spike deep
mutational scanning
A. We measured the effects of mutations in the KP.3.1.1 spike on pseudovirus entry into 293T cells
expressing ACE2, binding to ACE2 receptor, RBD up/down motion, neutralization by human sera,
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and neutralization by several key monoclonal antibodies. B. Spike amino-acid mutations and
deletions in the KP.3.1.1 spike used in our deep mutational scanning and other key
JN.1-descendant lineages relative to the early Wuhan-Hu-1 strain. Site labels indicate the
amino-acid identity and residue number in the Wuhan-Hu-1 strain. Sites that differ among JN.1 and
its descendant strains are bolded; non-bolded sites have fixed mutations relative to Wuhan-Hu-1
shared among all the lineages shown. When a variant has the same identity at a site as
Wuhan-Hu-1, this is indicated with empty white space. Insertions are not shown; all JN.1
descendant lineages have an MPLF amino-acid insertion at position 16.
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Figure 2. E
ff
ects of mutations to the KP.3.1.1 spike on pseudovirus entry in
ACE2-expressing cells
A. Effects of mutations in spike on entry in 293T cells expressing a medium amount of ACE2 (24).
Effects greater than zero (blue) indicate a mutation improves cell entry while e ffects less than zero
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(orange) indicate a mutation impairs cell entry. X indicates the wild-type amino acid in KP.3.1.1.
Light grey indicates mutations for which e ffects were not measured in our libraries; note that our
library design excluded most mutations expected to be highly deleterious from all regions of the
spike except for the RBD. Due to space constraints this figure shows only the NTD and RBD; see
https://dms-vep.org/SARS-CoV-2_KP .3.1.1_spike_DMS/cell_entry.html for an interactive heatmap
that shows mutations across the full spike. B. Effects on cell entry for some key recent mutations in
the KP.3.1.1 versus XBB.1.5 spikes. The e ffects in the KP.3.1.1 spike are from the current study,
the effects in the XBB.1.5 spike were published previously (2).
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Figure 3. E
ff
ects of mutations to the KP.3.1.1 spike on ACE2 binding
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A. E ffects of mutations in spike on ACE2 binding. E ffects greater than zero (blue) indicate a
mutation improves ACE2 binding while e ffects less than zero (orange) indicate a mutation
decreases ACE2 binding. X indicates wild-type amino acid in KP.3.1.1. Dark grey indicates
mutations that were present in our libraries but too deleterious for cell entry to measure an effect on
ACE2 binding; light grey indicates mutations for which e ffects were not measured in our libraries.
Due to space constraints this figure shows only the NTD and RBD; see
https://dms-vep.org/SARS-CoV-2_KP .3.1.1_spike_DMS/receptor_binding.html for an interactive
heatmap that shows e ffects of mutations across the full spike, as well as interactive versions of
other panels of this figure. B. Correlation between ACE2 binding measurements for the two
independent deep mutational scanning library replicates faceted by proximity to ACE2. ACE2
proximal sites are de fined as those within 15 Å distance from ACE2 in ACE2-bound RBD structure
(PDB: 6M0J). C. Correlation between the e ffects of RBD mutations on ACE2 binding measured for
the KP.3.1.1 spike in the current study and the XBB.1.5 spike in prior work (2). D. Mutation e ffects
on ACE2 binding at sites 435 and 493 measured in XBB.1.5 versus KP.3.1.1 deep mutational
scanning libraries. Amino-acids are coloured by their chemical properties.
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Figure 4. E
ff
ects of mutations to the KP.3.1.1 spike on serum neutralization
A. Total neutralization escape by all measured mutations at each site in spike averaged across all
seven pre- or post-vaccination or infection sera. For more extensive interactive versions of the plots
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in this figure including heatmaps with per-mutation effects, see https://dms-vep.org/SARS-CoV-2
_KP .3.1.1_spike_DMS/polyclonal_sera_escape.html. B. Comparison between escape at RBD sites
pre- and post-vaccination or infection for each of the seven individual sera. Note that this plot only
shows positive escape values (mutations that reduce neutralization), and not mutations that
increase neutralization (negative escape), although the interactive plots linked in this legend have
options to view the negative escape.
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Figure 5. Sites where mutations a
ff
ect RBD up/down conformation
A. Correlation between the measured e ffects of each mutation on ACE2 binding and serum
antibody escape, faceted by proximity of the site to ACE2. B. Experimentally estimated effect of
mutations at each site on RBD up/down conformation. The larger the value, the greater e ffect
mutations at that site have on RBD up/down conformation, although individual mutations at each
site may have opposing e ffects. Sites within the receptor-binding motif (RBM) are colored red, and
all other sites are blue. See https://dms-vep.org/SARS-CoV-2_KP .3.1.1_spike_DMS/RBD_
movement.html for an interactive version of this plot. The e ffect of each site on RBD up/down
conformation is estimated from the deep mutational scanning by calculating correlation (Pearson R)
between serum neutralization escape and ACE2 binding for all mutations at each site, then
multiplying that correlation by minus one and weighting it by the root-mean-square (RMS) e ffect of
all mutations at the site on ACE2 binding and the RMS e ffect of all mutations at the site on serum
neutralization escape. Sites with positive correlation had the e ffect floored to zero. This metric
captures the fact that mutations at sites that a ffect RBD up/down conformation have opposing
effects on ACE2 binding and serum neutralization escape. Only sites where binding and
neutralization effects could be measured for at least three mutations are shown.
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Figure 6. Mutations that reduce neutralization by monoclonal antibodies
BD55-1205, SA55 and VYD222
A. Mutations that reduce neutralization by the BD55-1205 antibody. The line plot on the left shows
the total escape caused by all mutations at each site in spike. The logo plot in the middle shows
escape caused by each mutation at key sites; letter heights indicate escape caused by each
mutation, and mutations are colored by their effect on ACE2 binding. The structure at right shows a
surface representation of the RBD bound by BD55-1205, with the RBD colored by the total escape
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at each site (PDB ID: 8XE9). B-C. Same as A but for SA55 and VYD222, respectively. For SA55,
the structure is PDB ID 7Y0W For VYD222, the structure is PDB ID 7U2D, which shows ADG20,
which is the parent antibody from which VYD222 is derived (44). Only positive escape values
(mutations that reduce neutralization) are shown. For a more detailed interactive plot showing
mutation-level escape across the spike for all three antibodies, see
https://dms-vep.org/SARS-CoV-2_KP .3.1.1_spike_DMS/antibody_escape.html.
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Supplementary figures
Supplementary Figure 1. Design of KP.3.1.1 spike deep mutational scanning
libraries
A. Method for producing genotype-phenotype linked pseudovirus-based deep mutational scanning
libraries as applied to the KP.3.1.1 spike. 293T cells are transfected with lentivirus helper plasmids,
lentiviral backbone plasmids encoding the barcoded KP.3.1.1 spike variant library, and VSV-G
expression plasmid to produce VSV-G pseudotyped viruses. The viruses are then used to infect
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293T cells expressing reverse tetracycline transactivator (rtTA) at low multiplicity of infection (MOI,
<0.01) so that only a single virus genome integrates in any given cell. Cells are then selected for
successful transduction using puromycin. From selected cells, genotype-phenotype linked virus
libraries are made by inducing spike expression using doxycycline and transfecting lentivirus helper
plasmids. To quantify the presence of non-functional as well as functional spike variants present in
the libraries, we also rescue VSV-G pseudotyped viruses from the same library cells by transfecting
lentivirus helper plasmids and VSV-G expression plasmids. B. Number of targeted and successfully
included mutations in each of the two independent libraries. Note that our library design primarily
targeted mutations expected to be functionally tolerated, see text and Methods for details. C.
Distribution of mutations per spike variant for each library. D. Correlation between the cell entry
e
ffects for all high-con fidence measured mutations in both of the two independent libraries.
Throughout the paper we show the average measurement across both libraries unless otherwise
indicated.
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Supplementary Figure 2. E
ff
ects of mutations on ACE2 binding
A. To measure e ffects of mutations to spike protein on ACE2 binding, deep mutational scanning
libraries are incubated with monomeric soluble human ACE2 at multiple concentrations followed by
infection of 293T-ACE2 cells expressing medium levels of ACE2. Library variants with mutations
that increase ACE2 are better neutralized by soluble ACE2 compared to variants with mutations
that decrease ACE2 binding. B. Correlation between mutation e ffects on ACE2 binding and cell
entry; note it is only possible for our method to measure ACE2 binding for mutations that maintain
at least modest levels of cell entry. C. SARS-CoV-2 spike structure with one RBD up in contact
with ACE2 (PDB: 8IOU). Spheres show ACE2 distal RBD sites with strong e ffects on ACE2 binding
as highlighted in Fig. 3B.
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Supplementary Figure 3. Neutralization of KP.3.1.1 pseudovirus by serum from the
same individual collected pre- and post-exposure to a JN.1 descendant spike
A. Neutralization curves for the sera from seven individuals analyzed in this study. Each plot shows
sera from the same individual pre- and post-exposure to JN.1-descendant spike. Curves were
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measured using standard neutralization assays with KP.3.1.1 spike pseudotyped lentiviral particles.
B. Neutralizing titers against KP.3.1.1 pseudovirus for sera pre- and post-exposure to
JN.1-descendant spike calculated from the neutralization curves in A. C. Correlation between deep
mutational scanning measured sera escape scores for pre- and post- JN.1-descendant spike
exposed sera for each individual. Each point is a di fferent mutation and shows the measured effect
of that mutation on escape from each serum.
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Supplementary Figure 4. E
ff
ects of mutations to KP.3.1.1 spike on serum
neutralization as measured by pseudovirus neutralization assay
A. Correlation between deep mutational scanning measured escape scores and IC50 values
measured using a standard pseudovirus neutralization assay for various KP.3.1.1 spike mutants. B.
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Fold change in IC50 values for di fferent KP.3.1.1 spike mutants relative to the unmutated KP.3.1.1
spike for pre- and post-vaccination or infection sera, as measured using a standard pseudovirus
neutralization assay. All mutations were measured for four sera except for V570W which was only
measured for two sera.
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Supplementary Figure 5. Escape for BD55-1205, SA55 and VYD222 antibodies
measured by yeast-based RBD versus pseudovirus-based full-spike deep
mutational scanning
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A. Top logoplot shows e ffects of mutations at key sites on BD55-1205 antibody binding as
measured using yeast-based deep mutational scanning of JN.1 RBD in previously published work
by Jian et al (6). The height of the letter indicates binding escape for each mutation. The bottom
logoplot shows mutations e ffects on neutralization by BD55-1205 as measured by KP.3.1.1
full-spile deep mutational scanning and is the same as in Fig. 6, with mutations colored according
to their e ffect on ACE2 binding in the KP.3.1.1 full-spike pseudovirus deep mutational scanning.
Sites where the parental amino acid di ffers between JN.1 and KP.3.1.1 backgrounds are labeled in
both logoplots; sites labeled in just the bottom logoplot have the same parental amino acid in both
JN.1 and KP.3.1.1. B-C. Same as A but for SA55 and VYD222 antibodies, respectively. No
measurement was reported for site 502 for BD55-1205, and sites 502 and 505 for SA55 in the
RBD-only deep mutational scanning data. For BD55-1205 no measurements are available for sites
480 and 488 in full spike deep mutational scanning because all mutations at those sites are highly
deleterious for cell entry.
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Supplementary Figure 6. Cloning of KP.3.1.1 deep mutational scanning library
A. To produce plasmid library for deep mutational scanning using Golden Gate assembly, the
KP.3.1.1 spike sequence was divided into 17 overlapping tiles. B. For each tile we computationally
designed a pool of oligos containing all desired mutations. C. Designed oligos were ordered as a
single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) oligo pool from which oligos belonging to each of the 17 tiles were
amplified with primers containing the BsmBI restriction site. Unmutated spike sequences flanking
each tile were also ampli fied. D. Golden Gate assembly was performed to assemble each tile pool
and flanking spike sequences into a shuttle vector. E. Assembled spike sequences were amplified
and barcoded in the same PCR reaction. Ampli fied and barcoded spike sequences were pooled
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equimolarly to make one library. F. The barcoded spike pool was cloned into a lentiviral vector using
a HiFi reaction.
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Supplementary Tables
Supplementary Table 1. Information about sera used in this study
We used pre- and post-exposure sera from seven adults. The table indicates the last exposure (by
vaccination or infection) and the days after this exposure that the “post-exposure” sera was
collected. The “pre-exposure” serum from each individual was the last blood drawn prior to this
final exposure, although individuals had di fferent number of vaccinations or infections before this
“pre-exposure” serum was collected. The table also indicates the last exposure before the
“pre-exposure” serum collection. In all cases, the “post-exposure” serum was after a vaccination
with the KP.2 spike or an infection in May-November of 2024, when JN.1-descendant variants
dominated in Washington state where all the sera were collected (79).
Supplementary Table 2. Antibody sequences
Variable chain sequences for BD55-1205, SA55 and VYD222 antibodies. The complete expressed
polypeptide sequences, including the human IgG1, lambda, or kappa constant sequences are
provided. Heavy (HC) and light chains (LC) were expressed with murine Ig heavy chain V region
102 as an N-terminal export signal sequence.
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