Fig. 2: Competitive replication and transmission of Alpha and wt-S614G in Syrian hamsters.
From: Enhanced fitness of SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern Alpha but not Beta
Six donor hamsters were each inoculated with a TCID50 of 104.3, determined by back titration and comprising a mixture of wt-S614G and Alpha at a 1:1.6 ratio, determined by RT–qPCR. Donor, contact 1 and contact 2 hamsters were co-housed sequentially as shown in Extended Data Fig. 2a. Nasal washes were performed daily from 1–9 dpi and then every 2 days until 21 dpi. Pie charts show the ratio of variants detected in nasal washes at the indicated dpi. Pie chart sizes are proportional to the total number of viral genome copies per ml, as shown above or below each chart. Grey pies indicate values below the LOD. Hamster silhouettes are coloured to indicate the dominant variant (>66%) detected in the last positive sample from each hamster; a silhouette with two colours indicates that there is no dominant variant. Daggers indicate that the hamster reached the humane endpoint.
