A trimerizing GxxxG motif is uniquely inserted in the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus spike protein transmembrane domain.

GxxxG motif of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus spike glycoprotein transmembrane domain is not involved in trimerization and is not important for entry.

Recently, a paper was published in which it was proposed that the GxxxG motif of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus spike (S) protein transmembrane domain plays a vital role in oligomerization of the protein (E. Arbely, Z. Granot, I. Kass, J. Orly, and I. T. Arkin, Biochemistry 45:11349-11356, 2006). Here, we show that the GxxxG motif is not involved in SARS S oligomerizat...

GxxxG motif of SARS coronavirus spike glycoprotein transmembrane domain is not involved in trimerization and is not important for entry

The evil role of spike in the coronaviruses: structure, function and evolution

1. Lu R, Zhao X, Li J, et al (2020) Genomic characterisation and epidemiology of 2019 novel coronavirus: implications for virus origins and receptor binding. Lancet 395:565–574 2. Zhou P, Tachedjian M, Wynne JW, et al (2016) Contraction of the type i IFN locus and unusual constitutive expression of IFN-α in bats. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 113:2696–2701 . doi: 10.1073/pnas.1518240113 3. Wu A, P...

The cytoplasmic tail of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus spike protein contains a novel endoplasmic reticulum retrieval signal that binds COPI and promotes interaction with membrane protein.

Like other coronaviruses, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS CoV) assembles at and buds into the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-Golgi intermediate compartment (ERGIC). Accumulation of the viral envelope proteins at this compartment is a prerequisite for virus assembly. Previously, we reported the identification of a dibasic motif (KxHxx) in the cytoplasmic tail of the ...

SARS Vaccine Development

Developing effective and safe vaccines is urgently needed to prevent infection by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV). The inactivated SARS-CoV vaccine may be the first one available for clinical use because it is easy to generate; however, safety is the main concern. The spike (S) protein of SARS-CoV is the major inducer of neutralizing antibodies, and th...