{"doi":"10.1101/2020.11.30.404905","title":"Characterization of SARS-CoV-2 N protein reveals multiple functional consequences of the C-terminal domain","abstract":"Nucleocapsid protein (N) is the most abundant viral protein encoded by SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19. N plays key roles at different steps in the replication cycle and is used as a serological marker of infection. Here we characterize the biochemical properties of SARS-CoV-2 N. We define the N domains important for oligomerization and RNA binding that are associated with spherical droplet formation and suggest that N accessibility and assembly may be regulated by phosphorylation. We also map the RNA binding interface using hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry. Finally, we find that the N protein C-terminal domain is the most immunogenic by sensitivity, based upon antibody binding to COVID-19 patient samples from the US and Hong Kong. Together, these findings uncover domain-specific insights into the significance of SARS-CoV-2 N and highlight the diagnostic value of using N domains as highly specific and sensitive markers of COVID-19.","journal":"bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)","year":2020,"id":119668,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":17,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9605,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":555567,"name":"Abraham J. Qavi","orcid":"0000-0002-9349-2600","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":338109,"name":"Asmaa Hachim","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":336245,"name":"Niloufar Kavian","orcid":"0000-0003-2829-3311","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":555568,"name":"Aidan R. Cole","orcid":"0000-0001-9647-0848","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":555569,"name":"Austin B. Moyle","orcid":"0000-0002-3050-8038","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":555570,"name":"Nicole D. Wagner","orcid":"0000-0003-3980-4893","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":556547,"name":"Joyce Sweeney-Gibbons","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":555571,"name":"Henry W. Rohrs","orcid":"0000-0001-8678-8107","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":326270,"name":"Michael L. Gross","orcid":"0000-0003-1159-4636","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":7188,"name":"Malik Peiris","orcid":"0000-0001-8217-5995","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":235593,"name":"Christopher F. Basler","orcid":"0000-0003-4195-425X","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":555572,"name":"Christopher W Farnsworth","orcid":"0000-0001-7169-3850","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":7166,"name":"Sophie A. Valkenburg","orcid":"0000-0002-0768-9926","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":227340,"name":"Gaya K. Amarasinghe","orcid":"0000-0002-0418-9707","position":14,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":328258,"name":"Daisy W. Leung","orcid":"0000-0002-7189-9557","position":15,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":536193,"name":"Chao Wu","orcid":"0000-0002-9342-1968","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":52,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:14:13.002105Z","pmid":"33269347","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,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}