Two courses of deconstructed coronavirus please

In a study published recently in PLOS Pathogens [1], Ju and colleagues report the development of a safer way to find antiviral drugs against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Since late 2019, SARS-CoV-2 has spread around the world, causing (as of March 2021) at least 100 million infections, nearly 3 million deaths, and countless instances of long-term disease. BSL3, Biosafety Level 3; SARS-CoV-2, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1009547.g001 As safety in working with SARS-CoV-2 is paramount, to reduce the potential even further for the N gene to recombine, Ju and colleagues utilised intein protein-splicing technology to effectively split N in 2 on independent genes. Additionally, through reconstitution with distinct N genes, the group delineated the role of specific N features, such as the incompatibility between SARS-CoV-2 and N from the related Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), the critical role of specific N amino acid positions in promoting infection, and protein–protein interactions between N and host cell factors, rediscovering some previous identified interactions in other coronaviruses of animals [3].