Classification of viral proteins expressed by the SARS-CoV-2 genome

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 syndrome leads to Covid 19 disease, and spread rapidly worldwide in a pandemic mode. In order to control or avoid SARS-CoV-2 infection, it is essential to develop successful preventive or therapeutic strategies against the virus. For this reason, it is of great importance to understate the structure and function of the proteins, as well as the genome of SARS-CoV 2. The SARS-CoV-2 genome is remarkably similar to the coronavirus causing SARS in 2003, and much of the knowledge obtained for SARS-CoV-2 proteins is based on the various research studies published on SARS-CoV and other related viruses. The SARS-CoV-2 genome, similar to other coronaviruses, encodes four structural proteins (S, E, M, and N). This virus, moreover, expresses nine accessory proteins and 16 non-structural proteins. This review article provides a comprehensive insight into the SARS-CoV-2 genome and the structure and function of proteins. In addition, amino acid sequence alignment between SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV is presented in this article. © 2022 Greek Society of Microbiology Ascent Ltd. All rights reserved.