Structural Genomics and Interactomics of SARS-COV2

By November 2020, over 60 million people in 218 countries have been infected with COVID-19, with the number of deaths rapidly approaching 1.5 million and the second wave of pandemic underway in many countries. The SARS-CoV-2 genome and its organization are similar to other closely related betacoronaviruses, including human SARS-CoV, bat coronavirus, and murine coronavirus. The information on protein binding sites extracted from the viral protein complexes can be also used to elucidate the evolutionary mechanisms and their impact on the viral protein function. In spite of the joint efforts by the scientific community, the people are yet to get a comprehensive structural characterization of all SARS-CoV-2 proteins using experimental methods. The viral proteins of SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 are known to hijack the cellular components responsible for protein transport: endoplasmic reticulum (ER), ER-Golgi intermediate compartment (ERGIC), and Golgi stack are primarily targeted by ORF3a and ORF8 in the current interactome.