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. 2022 Mar 31;32(5):e2348. doi: 10.1002/rmv.2348

FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 1

The viral life cycle of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS‐COV‐2). SAR‐COV‐2 interacts with angiotensin‐converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor and then the transmembrane protease serine 2 (TMPRSS2) and proprotein convertase furin primes S protein for entry into target cells. Two endocytosis mechanisms are known that SARS‐CoV‐2 uses for entrance to the cell: (a) clathrin‐mediated and (b) the releasing direct of its genome into the cytosol. Both mechanisms permit the viral genome to reach the cytosol, and once released, SARS‐CoV‐2 is translated into two open reading frames (ORF): ORF1a and ORF1b, promoting the expression of non‐structural proteins (nsps) 1–16, and the polyprotein 1a (pp1a) and pp1b. The latter allows the replication of the viral structural proteins: spike (S), envelope (e), the membrane (M), and the nucleocapsid (N). S, E, and M form the viral capsid, and N organises the nucleocapsid. Finally, the virion is packaged and released outer the infected cell. The figure was created with BioRender