Figure 1.

The life cycle of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. SARS-CoV-2 proteins bind to the ACE2 receptor. TMPRSS2 promotes viral uptake and fusion at the cellular and endosomal membranes. Following entry, the release and uncoating of the genomic RNA subject it to the immediate translation of the two large opening reading frames, ORF1a, and ORF1b. During the cellular life cycle, SARS-CoV-2 viruses express and replicate their genomic RNA to produce full-length copies that are incorporated into newly produced viral particles.