CoV E - Coronavirus Envelop Protein E

Description:
Coronaviruses (CoVs) assemble at endoplasmic reticulum Golgi intermediate compartment membranes and egress from cells in cargo vesicles. Additionally, the E protein has ion channel activity, interacts with host proteins, and may have multiple membrane topologies.

Topology:
Coronavirus envelope (CoV E) proteins are ~100-residue polypeptides with at least one channel-forming α-helical transmembrane (TM) domain. The extramembrane C terminal tail contains a completely conserved proline, at the center of a predicted β coil β motif.

Function:
The channel activity of E was first demonstrated for CoV E in planar lipid bilayers, where it was found that a synthetic peptide corresponding to the protein could permeabilize bilayers to Na⁺ and K⁺, with a 10-fold preference for Na⁺. The role of the CoV E ion channel in infection is not entirely clear. However, studies have linked the putative ion channel activity with virus replication and release.