Coronavirus envelope protein
| Envelope protein | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Model of the external structure of the SARS-CoV-2 virion
● Blue: envelope ● Turquoise: spike glycoprotein (S) ● Bright Pink: envelope proteins (E) ● Green: membrane proteins (M) ● Orange: glycans | |||||||||
| Identifiers | |||||||||
| Symbol | CoV_E | ||||||||
| Pfam | PF02723 | ||||||||
| InterPro | IPR003873 | ||||||||
| PROSITE | PS51926 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
The envelope (E) protein is the smallest and least well-characterized of the four major structural proteins found in coronavirus virions. It is an integral membrane protein less than 110 amino acid residues long; in SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of Covid-19, the E protein is 75 residues long. Although it is not necessarily essential for viral replication, absence of the E protein may produce abnormally assembled viral capsids or reduced replication. E is a multifunctional protein and, in addition to its role as a structural protein in the viral capsid, it is thought to be involved in viral assembly, likely functions as a viroporin, and is involved in viral pathogenesis.