Dynamical asymmetry exposes 2019-nCoV prefusion spike

Susmita Roy

The population shifts more towards the S1-head-up state conformations as the temperature increases. It suggests that the S1-head-up states are more dynamic and entropically stable. Note that the dynamical transition between 1up-2down and 2up-1down states may tolerate a wide range of temperatures by a population shift mechanism. So far, we have examined that it tolerates the temperature range from T*=0.50T R to T*=1.67T R . Temperature dependence of RBD hinge motion has also been studied (Fig. S4) . Population distribution as a function of the fraction of native intra-chain hinge-region contacts formed by the RBD at different temperatures has been monitored. A bimodal distribution reflects the population of the 'RBD-up' and 'RBDdown' states for any individual chain being in trimeric spike. As temperature increases, the RBD-up states start to enhance their populations.