Figure 1.

The life cycle of coronavirus. Coronavirus infections are initiated by the binding of virions to cellular receptors. After binding, virus accesses to host cell and is released to the cytosol of host cell. Viral RNA is translated by viral polymerase. Following replication and subgenomic RNA synthesis, the viral structural proteins, spike (S), envelope (E), and membrane (M) are translated and inserted into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). These proteins move along the secretory pathway into the membranes of endoplasmic reticulum–Golgi intermediate compartment (ERGIC) and combine with nucleocapsid (N) protein. Virus goes inside the Golgi vesicle to form the mature virion. Finally, the virion-containing vesicle fuses with the membrane of the host cell to release the virus.