Coronaviruses are enveloped, positive-stranded RNA viruses with a genome of approximately 30 kb (Lai, 1990). In animals they are significant veterinary pathogens, often causing severe disease (Holmes, 2001). Prior to early 2000, only two human coronaviruses were recognized, Human coronavirus 229E (HCoV-229E) and Human coronavirus OC43 (HCoV-OC43) which are a common cause of upper respiratory tract infections (Chibo and Birch, 2006). In late 2002, a third human coronavirus (SARS-CoV) was implicated as the aetiological agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) (Drosten et al., 2003). Since then, several more human coronaviruses have been identified, including HCoV-NL63 associated with upper and lower respiratory tract infections (van der Hoek et al., 2004) and HCoV-HKU1 in patients with pneumonia (Woo et al., 2005) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). HCoV-229E was first described in 1966 when it was isolated from cell cultures inoculated with samples from diseased student volunteers (Hamre & Procknow, 1966).
Sequences related to HCoV-229E have been detected in captive alpacas and dromedary camels which may form an intermediate host for the virus. However, the viruses natural host is likely to be hipposiderid bats in Africa and these populations show much greater viral diversity than those from camelids. The spike genes of all HCoV-229E and camelid-associated 229E viruses contain deletions as compared to bat-associated viruses, which may have played a role in host switching. All 229E viruses from camels and all strains from bats also contain an additional gene (ORF 8) downstream of the nucleocapsid gene. Nucleocapsid proteins (nucleoproteins) are phosphoproteins that are capable of binding to helix and have flexible structure of viral genomic RNA. Nucleoprotein plays an important role in virion structure, replication and transcription of coronaviruses, as it localizes in both the replication/ transcriptional region of the coronaviruses and the ERGIC region where the virus is collected. It 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. It also plays an important role in enhancing the efficiency of subgenomic viral RNA transcription as well as viral replication (Corman et al, 2018).
Source:Recombinant protein corresponding to human Coronavirus 229E Spike, expressed in HEK293. aa533-540 were replaced by an 9aa glycine-serine linker to prevent protein cleavage by host cell proteases
Molecular Weight:~200kD
Storage and Stability:Aliquot to avoid repeated freezing and thawing and store at -70°C. For maximum recovery of product, centrifuge the original vial after thawing and prior to removing the cap.
