Viral Architecture of SARS-CoV-2 with Post-Fusion Spike Revealed by Cryo-EM

Liu, Chuang; Yang, Yang; Gao, Yuanzhu; Shen, Chenguang; Ju, Bin; Liu, Congcong; Tang, Xian; Wei, Jinli; Ma, Xiaomin; Liu, Weilong; Xu, Shuman; Liu, Yingxia; Yuan, Jing; Wu, Jing; Liu, Zheng; Zhang, Zheng; Wang, Peiyi; Liu, Lei

Since December 2019, the outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) spread from Wuhan, China to the world, it has caused more than 87,000 diagnosed cases and more than 3,000 deaths globally. To fight against COVID-19, we carried out research for the near native SARS-CoV-2 and report here our preliminary results obtained. The pathogen of the COVID-19, the native SARS-CoV-2, was isolated, amplified and purified in a BSL-3 laboratory. The whole viral architecture of SARS-CoV-2 was examined by transmission electron microscopy (both negative staining and cryo-EM). We observed that the virion particles are roughly spherical or moderately pleiomorphic. Spikes have nail-like shape towards outside with a long body embedded in the envelope. The morphology of virion observed in our result indicates that the S protein of SARS-CoV-2 is in post-fusion state, with S1 disassociated. This state revealed by cryo-EM first time could provide an important information for the identification and relevant clinical research of this new coronavirus.