?:abstract
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The 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is currently causing a widespread outbreak centered on Hubeprovince, China and is a major public health concern Taxonomically 2019-nCoV is closely related to SARS-CoV and SARS-related bat coronaviruses, and it appears to share a common receptor with SARS-CoV (ACE-2) Here, we perform structural modeling of the 2019-nCoV spike glycoprotein Our data provide support for the similar receptor utilization between 2019-nCoV and SARS-CoV, despite a relatively low amino acid similarity in the receptor binding module Compared to SARS-CoV, we identify an extended structural loocontaining basic amino acids at the interface of the receptor binding (S1) and fusion (S2) domains, which we predict to be proteolytically-sensitive We suggest this looconfers fusion activation and entry properties more in line with MERS-CoV and other coronaviruses, and that the presence of this structural looin 2019-nCoV may affect virus stability and transmission
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