SARS-CoV-2 NSP12 associates with the TRiC complex and the P323L substitution is a host adaption

Abstract

Summary: SARS-CoV-2 emerged into the human population in late 2019 and human to human transmission has dominated the evolutionary landscape and driven the selection of different lineages. The first major change that resulted in increased transmission was the D614G substitution in the spike protein. This was accompanied by the P323L substitution in the viral RNA dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) (NSP12). Together, with D614G these changes are the root of the predominant global SARS-CoV-2 landscape. Here, we found that NSP12 formed an interactome with cellular proteins. The functioning of NSP12 was dependent on the T-complex protein Ring Complex, a molecular chaperone. In contrast, there was differential association between NSP12 variants and components of a phosphatase complex (PP2/PP2A and STRN3). Virus expressing NSP12_L323was less sensitive to perturbations in PP2A and supports the paradigm that ongoing genotype to phenotype adaptation of SARS- CoV-2 in humans is not exclusively restricted to the spike protein.