Andreas Bernsel, Hakan Viklund, Jenny Falk, Erik Lindahl, Gunnar von Heijne, Arne Elofsson, Prediction of Membrane-Protein Topology from First Principles, Proceedings of the National Academy of ...

Muyoung Heo, Sergei Maslov, Eugene Shakhnovich, William A. Eaton, Topology of protein interaction network shapes protein abundances and strengths of their functional and nonspecific interactions, ...

More information: Sota Yagi et al, An ancestral fold reveals the evolutionary link between RNA polymerase and ribosomal proteins, Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-50013-9 ...

This unconventional topology prevents glycosylation of M and plays a critical role in recruiting S and E proteins. Importantly, this is evolutionarily conserved among other beta-coronaviruses.

Meanwhile, the topology of the E protein for the less virulent human coronaviruses is unknown. No evidence shows if it adopts a topology similar to the more virulent coronaviruses.