Coronavirus N protein is required for coronavirus RNA synthesis, and has RNA chaperone activity that may be involved in template switch. Nucleocapsid protein is a most abundant protein of coronavirus. N protein packages the positive strand viral genome RNA into a helical ribonucleocapsid (RNP) and plays a fundamental role during virion assembly through its interactions with the viral genome and membrane protein M. Plays an important role in enhancing the efficiency of subgenomic viral RNA transcription as well as viral replication. Because of the conservation of N protein sequence and its strong immunogenicity, the N protein of coronavirus is chosen as a diagnostic tool.
