Coronavirus nucleocapsid protein
| Nucleocapsid protein | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Model of the external structure of the SARS-CoV-2 virion. The N protein, contained entirely within the virion, is not visible.
● Blue: envelope ● Turquoise: spike glycoprotein (S) ● Red: envelope proteins (E) ● Green: membrane proteins (M) ● Orange: glycans | |||||||||
| Identifiers | |||||||||
| Symbol | CoV_nucleocap | ||||||||
| Pfam | PF00937 | ||||||||
| InterPro | IPR001218 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
The nucleocapsid (N) protein is a protein that packages the positive-sense RNA genome of coronaviruses to form ribonucleoprotein structures enclosed within the viral capsid. The N protein is the most highly expressed of the four major coronavirus structural proteins. In addition to its interactions with RNA, N forms protein-protein interactions with the coronavirus membrane protein (M) during the process of viral assembly. N also has additional functions in manipulating the cell cycle of the host cell. The N protein is highly immunogenic and antibodies to N are found in patients recovered from SARS and COVID-19.