Cloning and Sequencing the Nucleocapsid and E1 Genes of Coronavirus

The widespread medical and veterinary importance of Coronaviruses provided the initial reason for studying these viruses at the molecular level. However, two unusual features of the viral life cycle are of particular interest for “pure” molecular biology. First, the intracellular budding site of Coronaviruses, apparently associated with the restricted intracellular distribution of the E1 glycoprotein1 suggests that this protein may provide a model to study the transport and sorting of membrane proteins of the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus. Secondly, the unusual “nested set” structure of the viral RNA’s2,3,4,5(Spaan et al., this volume) implies a replication mechanism unlike that of other RNA viruses.