In a new paper published today in the journal Science, researchers at the Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI) at UC Berkeley and Gladstone Institutes used a new method to explore why some variants of SARS-CoV-2, like the Delta variant, are more transmissible and infectious than others.
The new study, a collaboration between the labs of Jennifer Doudna at the IGI and Melanie Ott at Gladstone Institutes, uses virus-like particles instead of live virus, a safer and faster way to explore the effect of different mutations in the virus’s genome. Initial explorations with this method found a surprising result: while most research has focused on mutations in the virus’s spike protein that allows the virus to penetrate human cells, mutations in a different protein, the nucleocapsid protein, appear to be more important for enhancing infectivity.