Betacoronaviruses are a genus within the Coronaviridae family of RNA viruses. They are capable of infecting vertebrates and causing epidemics as well as global pandemics in humans. Mitigating the threat posed by Betacoronaviruses requires an understanding of their molecular diversity. The development of novel antivirals hinges on understanding the key regulatory elements within the viral RNA genomes, in particular the 5′-proximal region, which is pivotal for viral protein synthesis. Using a combination of cryo-electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, chemical probing, and computational modeling, Rocha de Moura and coworkers (NAR, 2024) determined the structures of 5′-proximal regions in RNA genomes of Betacoronaviruses from four subgenera: OC43-CoV, SARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV, and Rousettus bat-CoV. Here you can see the electron microscopy structure of the 5-Proximal Region of Rousettus bat coronavirus GCCDC1 (PDB code: 8QO3)

#molecularart ... #coronavirus ... #genome ... #fiveprimeend ... #Rousettus ... #bat .. #cryoem

Structure rendered with @proteinimaging, post-processed with @stylar.ai_official and depicted with @corelphotopaint