ArticlePLoS biology2021
SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein forms condensates with viral genomic RNA.
Article in PLoS biology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 120 papers.
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Who cites it
120 citing papers in PubMed, 168 citations in OpenAlex.
- SARS-CoV-2 variants with reduced infectivity and varied sensitivity to the BNT162b2 vaccine are developed during the course of infection.PLoS pathogens · 2022Trial
- Nsp3 Ubl1-orchestrated dephosphorylation of N protein promotes coronaviral subgenomic RNA synthesis.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Identification of the SARS-CoV-2 genome packaging signal in the nsp12-coding region.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Structural Features of a Tiny Viral Protein, ORF7b of SARS-CoV-2.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- IFI16 restricts SARS-CoV-2 replication by disrupting nucleocapsid-driven phase separation.Communications biology · 2026Article
- The Effect of Protein Tagging on Aggregation and Phase Separation.Journal of cellular biochemistry · 2026Review
- Small molecules modulate the biomolecular condensates and liquid‒liquid phase separation.Acta pharmaceutica Sinica. B · 2026Review
- Direct interaction between human DDX1 and SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein is regulated by phosphorylation.The Journal of biological chemistry · 2026Article
- Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus Reprogrammes Host Glycolysis to Facilitate Proliferation by a Phase-Separated Co-Aggregate of Nucleocapsid Protein and Phosphoglycerate Kinase.Plant biotechnology journal · 2026Article
- Assessing the performance of multimodal large language models in experimental information extraction from liquid-liquid phase separation literature.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Article
- Review
- Nasal RNA-scaffold-protein vaccine protects mice from human H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b virus lethal infection and safeguards against vaccine-unmatched viruses.EBioMedicine · 2026Article
- Research progress of nucleocapsid protein of novel coronavirus: structure, function and targeted therapy.Archives of virology · 2026Review
- Structural organization of HBV pgRNA genome driven by phase separation in capsid confinement.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Intramolecular loops control SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein self-association and nucleic acid binding dependent on phosphorylation.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Article
- Identification and characterization of a novel linear B-cell epitope on nucleocapsid protein of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus.BMC veterinary research · 2025Article
- Characterization of the binding features between SARS-CoV-2 5'-proximal transcripts of genomic RNA and nucleocapsid proteins.RNA biology · 2025Review
- Solid-State Nanopore Single-Molecule Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 N Protein: From Interaction Exploration to Small-Molecule Antagonism.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
60 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection causes Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), a pandemic that seriously threatens global health. SARS-CoV-2 propagates by packaging its RNA genome into membrane enclosures in host cells. The packaging of the viral genome into the nascent virion is mediated by the nucleocapsid (N) protein, but the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Here, we show that the N protein forms biomolecular condensates with viral genomic RNA both in vitro and in mammalian cells. While the N protein forms spherical assemblies with homopolymeric RNA substrates that do not form base pairing interactions, it forms asymmetric condensates with viral RNA strands. Cross-linking mass spectrometry (CLMS) identified a region that drives interactions between N proteins in condensates, and deletion of this region disrupts phase separation. We also identified small molecules that alter the size and shape of N protein condensates and inhibit the proliferation of SARS-CoV-2 in infected cells. These results suggest that the N protein may utilize biomolecular condensation to package the SARS-CoV-2 RNA genome into a viral particle.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.