{"doi":"10.1038/s41586-020-2180-5","title":"Structure of the SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor-binding domain bound to the ACE2 receptor","abstract":"A new and highly pathogenic coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2, SARS-CoV-2) caused an outbreak in Wuhan city, Hubei province, China, starting from December 2019 that quickly spread nationwide and to other countries around the world<sup>1-3</sup>. Here, to better understand the initial step of infection at an atomic level, we determined the crystal structure of the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 bound to the cell receptor ACE2. The overall ACE2-binding mode of the SARS-CoV-2 RBD is nearly identical to that of the SARS-CoV RBD, which also uses ACE2 as the cell receptor<sup>4</sup>. Structural analysis identified residues in the SARS-CoV-2 RBD that are essential for ACE2 binding, the majority of which either are highly conserved or share similar side chain properties with those in the SARS-CoV RBD. Such similarity in structure and sequence strongly indicate convergent evolution between the SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV RBDs for improved binding to ACE2, although SARS-CoV-2 does not cluster within SARS and SARS-related coronaviruses<sup>1-3,5</sup>. The epitopes of two SARS-CoV antibodies that target the RBD are also analysed for binding to the SARS-CoV-2 RBD, providing insights into the future identification of cross-reactive antibodies.","journal":"Nature","year":2020,"id":5686,"datarank":17.711198013414812,"base_score":8.807771066980044,"endowment":8.807771066980044,"self_citation_contribution":1.3211656600470068,"citation_network_contribution":16.390032353367804,"self_endowment_contribution":1.3211656600470068,"citer_contribution":16.390032353367804,"corpus_percentile":89.9,"corpus_rank":1990,"citation_count":6685,"citer_count":194,"citers_with_citation_signal":194,"citers_with_endowment":194,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-03-30","authors":[{"id":55126,"name":"Jiwan Ge","orcid":"0000-0001-9366-1470","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":55127,"name":"Jinfang Yu","orcid":"0000-0002-2294-0752","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":55128,"name":"Sisi Shan","orcid":"0000-0002-7184-6818","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":55129,"name":"Huan Zhou","orcid":"0000-0002-1153-1988","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":55130,"name":"Shilong Fan","orcid":"0000-0001-9272-2438","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":43231,"name":"Qi Zhang","orcid":"0000-0001-6197-0973","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":55131,"name":"Xuanling Shi","orcid":"0000-0001-8418-9661","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":55132,"name":"Qisheng Wang","orcid":"0000-0002-0614-6903","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":55133,"name":"Linqi Zhang","orcid":"0000-0003-4931-509X","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":55134,"name":"Xinquan Wang","orcid":"0000-0003-3136-8070","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":27658,"name":"Jun Lan","orcid":"0000-0001-5550-2946","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":29,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-03-01T18:20:47.508186Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}