1H, 13C and 15N chemical shift assignment of the stem-loop 5a from the 5'-UTR of SARS-CoV-2.

The SARS-CoV-2 (SCoV-2) virus is the causative agent of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic It contains a positive sense single-stranded RNA genome and belongs to the genus of Betacoronaviruses The 5'- and 3'-genomic ends of the 30 kb SCoV-2 genome are potential antiviral drug targets Major parts of these sequences are highly conserved among Betacoronaviruses and contain cis-acting RNA elements that affect RNA translation and replication The 31 nucleotide (nt) long highly conserved stem-loop 5a (SL5a) is located within the 5'-untranslated region (5'-UTR) important for viral replication SL5a features a U-rich asymmetric bulge and is capped with a 5'-UUUCGU-3' hexaloop, which is also found in stem-loop 5b (SL5b) We herein report the extensive (1)H, (13)C and (15)N resonance assignment of SL5a as basis for in-depth structural studies by solution NMR spectroscopy