Figure 1.

Schematic presentation of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) genome and S encoded protein (spike). The upper panel shows the SARS‐CoV‐2 genomic regions. The middle panel depicts the S protein, and the lines therein represent positions of non‐synonymous amino acid changes in S found among the sequences analyzed. The region of the receptor‐binding domain (RBD) domain of the SARS‐CoV‐2 spike protein that includes amino acids thought to be most important for interaction with the human angiotensin‐converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor is shown in the bottom panel, and is aligned with the RBD domain of four other coronaviruses. The six residues shaded in yellow are the most important SARS‐CoV‐2 interacting amino acids, and the 12 shaded in green and the four shaded in gray are at the next levels of importance. The stars in the lower panel show the positions of non‐synonymous amino acid changes within the RBD domain