Fig. 5: Efficient replication of authentic SARS-CoV-2 BA.5 in Calu-3 lung cells.

Vero (A) and Calu-3 (B) cells were inoculated with authentic SARS-CoV-2 lineages B.1, BA.1, BA.2, BA.4 and BA.5 at an MOI of 0.01, and viral titers in supernatants at the indicated time points were quantified by plaque assay. Left panels show mean titers from three biological replicates (performed with two technical replicates), while right panels represent AUC data (for the time interval between 1 and 72 h). Error bars indicate the standard deviation (growth curves) or the SEM (AUC data). Statistical significance was analyzed by two-tailed Student’s t-tests with Welch correction (p > 0.05, not significant [ns]; p ≤ 0.05, *; p ≤ 0.01, **; p ≤ 0.001, ***), see also Extended Data Table 5. AUC area under the curve, PFU plaque forming unit.