SARS-CoV-2

Fig: Schematic diagram of SARS-CoV-2

Corona virus is scientifically known as Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It is the strain of coronavirus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). SARS-CoV-2 is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus and is the successor to SARS-CoV-1, the strain that caused the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak.

Each SARS-CoV-2 virion is 50–200 nanometres in diameter.Like other coronaviruses, SARS-CoV-2 has four structural proteins, known as the S (spike), E (envelope), M (membrane), and N (nucleocapsid) proteins; the N protein holds the RNA genome, and the S, E, and M proteins together create the viral envelope. The spike protein, which has been imaged at the atomic level using cryogenic electron microscopy, is the protein responsible for allowing the virus to attach to and fuse with the membrane of a host cell; specifically, its S1 subunit catalyzes attachment, the S2 subunit fusion.