SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein adheres to replication organelles before viral assembly at the Golgi/ERGIC and lysosome-mediated egress.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 34995113.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.abl4895 and PMC identifier 10954198.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Despite being the target of extensive research efforts due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic, relatively little is known about the dynamics of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) replication within cells. We investigate and characterize the tightly orchestrated virus assembly by visualizing the spatiotemporal dynamics of the four structural SARS-CoV-2 proteins at high resolution. The nucleoprotein is expressed first and accumulates around folded endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membranes in convoluted layers that contain viral RNA replication foci. We find that, of the three transmembrane proteins, the membrane protein appears at the Golgi apparatus/ER-to-Golgi intermediate compartment before the spike and envelope proteins. Relocation of a lysosome marker toward the assembly compartment and its detection in transport vesicles of viral proteins confirm an important role of lysosomes in SARS-CoV-2 egress. These data provide insights into the spatiotemporal regulation of SARS-CoV-2 assembly and refine the current understanding of SARS-CoV-2 replication.