Although most mutations in the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) genome are expected to be either deleterious and swiftly purged or relatively neutral, a small proportion will affect functional properties and may alter infectivity, disease severity or interactions with host immunity. The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 in late 2019 was followed by a period of relative evolutionary stasis lasting about 11 months. Since late 2020, however, SARS-CoV-2 evolution has been characterized by the emergence of sets of mutations, in the context of ‘variants of concern’, that impact virus characteristics, including transmissibility and antigenicity, probably in response to the changing immune profile of the human population. There is emerging evidence of reduced neutralization of some SARS-CoV-2 variants by postvaccination serum; however, a greater understanding of correlates of protection is required to evaluate how this may impact vaccine effectiveness. Nonetheless, manufacturers are preparing platforms for a possible update of vaccine sequences, and it is crucial that surveillance of genetic and antigenic changes in the global virus population is done alongside experiments to elucidate the phenotypic impacts of mutations. In this Review, we summarize the literature on mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, the primary antigen, focusing on their impacts on antigenicity and contextualizing them in the protein structure, and discuss them in the context of observed mutation frequencies in global sequence datasets.

尽管严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2 (SARS-CoV-2) 基因组中的大多数突变预计要么是有害的并被迅速清除，要么是相对中性的，但一小部分会影响功能特性，并可能改变传染性、疾病严重程度或与宿主的相互作用免疫。2019 年底 SARS-CoV-2 出现后，出现了持续约 11 个月的相对进化停滞期。然而，自 2020 年底以来，SARS-CoV-2 进化的特点是在“令人关注的变体”背景下出现了一系列突变，这些突变影响了病毒特征，包括传播性和抗原性，可能是为了响应不断变化的免疫系统。人口概况。有新的证据表明，疫苗接种后血清对某些 SARS-CoV-2 变体的中和作用减弱；然而，需要更深入地了解保护的相关性，以评估这如何影响疫苗的有效性。尽管如此，制造商正在为可能更新的疫苗序列准备平台，至关重要的是，在进行实验的同时，对全球病毒群体的遗传和抗原变化进行监测，以阐明突变的表型影响。在这篇综述中，我们总结了有关主要抗原 SARS-CoV-2 刺突蛋白突变的文献，重点关注它们对抗原性的影响，并将它们置于蛋白质结构中，并在全球观察到的突变频率的背景下讨论它们。序列数据集。