2,097
Views
3
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Research Articles

Featuring ACE2 binding SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 through a conserved evolutionary pattern of amino acid residues

ORCID Icon & ORCID Icon
Pages 11719-11728 | Received 16 Dec 2020, Accepted 26 Jul 2021, Published online: 06 Sep 2021
 

Abstract

Spike (S) glycoproteins mediate the coronavirus entry into the host cell. The S1 subunit of S-proteins contains the receptor-binding domain (RBD) that is able to recognize different host receptors, highlighting its remarkable capacity to adapt to their hosts along the viral evolution. While RBD in spike proteins is determinant for the virus–receptor interaction, the active residues lie at the receptor-binding motif (RBM), a region located in RBD that plays a fundamental role binding the outer surface of their receptors. Here, we address the hypothesis that SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 strains able to use angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) proteins have adapted their RBM along the viral evolution to explore specific conformational topology driven by the residues YGF to infect host cells. We also speculate that this YGF-based mechanism can act as a protein signature located at the RBM to distinguish coronaviruses able to use ACE2 as a cell entry receptor.

Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Additional information

Funding

P.P.D.C. and N.A.A. gratefully acknowledge financial supports from the Brazilian agencies CAPES, and FAPESP, process 2015/16116-3, respectively.

Log in via your institution

Log in to Taylor & Francis Online

PDF download + Online access

  • 48 hours access to article PDF & online version
  • Article PDF can be downloaded
  • Article PDF can be printed
USD 61.00 Add to cart

Issue Purchase

  • 30 days online access to complete issue
  • Article PDFs can be downloaded
  • Article PDFs can be printed
USD 1,074.00 Add to cart

* Local tax will be added as applicable

Related Research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.