Amino acid sequence alignments of the ganglioside-binding domain (GBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. (a) Clinical SARS-CoV-2 isolates aligned with the reference sequence (6VSB_A, fragment 111–162). The amino acid residues involved in GM1 binding are indicated in red. Two asparagine residues acting as glycosylation sites are highlighted in yellow. (b) Alignments of human and animal viruses compared with SARS-CoV-2 (6VSB_A, fragment 111–162). Deletions are highlighted in green, amino acid changes in residues involved in ganglioside binding are highlighted in blue, conserved residues of the GBD are highlighted in red, and asparagine residues acting as glycosylation sites are highlighted in yellow.