{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"institution":[{"name":"Research Square"}],"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,20]],"date-time":"2025-12-20T22:01:38Z","timestamp":1766268098107,"version":"3.37.3"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2022,1,25]]},"group-title":"In Review","reference-count":0,"publisher":"Springer Science and Business Media LLC","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,1,25]],"date-time":"2022-01-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1643068800000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001871","name":"Funda\u00e7\u00e3o para a Ci\u00eancia e a Tecnologia","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["DSAIPA\/DS\/0118\/2020"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["DSAIPA\/DS\/0118\/2020"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001871","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001871","name":"Funda\u00e7\u00e3o para a Ci\u00eancia e a Tecnologia","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["POCI-01-0145-FEDER-031356; UIDB\/04539\/2020; PTDC\/QUI-NUC\/30147\/2017; PTDC\/QUI-OUT\/32243\/2017; PD\/BD\/135179\/2017 and 2020.07766.BD"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["POCI-01-0145-FEDER-031356; UIDB\/04539\/2020; PTDC\/QUI-NUC\/30147\/2017; PTDC\/QUI-OUT\/32243\/2017; PD\/BD\/135179\/2017 and 2020.07766.BD"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001871","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,10]]},"abstract":"<title>Abstract<\/title>\n        <p><italic>Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus-2<\/italic> (SARS-CoV-2) is composed by four structural proteins and several accessory non-structural proteins. SARS-CoV-2's most abundant structural protein, Membrane (M) protein, has a pivotal role both during viral infection cycle and host interferon antagonism. This is a highly conserved viral protein, thus an interesting and suitable target for drug discovery. In this paper, we explain the structural and dynamic nature of M protein homodimer. To do so, we developed and applied a detailed and robust <italic>in silico<\/italic> workflow to predict M protein dimeric structure, membrane orientation, and interface characterization. <italic>Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms<\/italic> (SNPs) in M protein were retrieved from over 1.2 M SARS-CoV-2 genomes and proteins from the <italic>Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data<\/italic> (GISAID) database, 91 of which were located at the predicted dimer interface. Among those, we identified SNPs in <italic>Variants of Concern<\/italic> (VOC) and <italic>Variants of Interest<\/italic> (VOI). Binding free energy differences were evaluated for dimer interfacial SNPs to infer mutant protein stabilities. A few high-prevalent mutated residues were found to be especially relevant in VOC and VOI. This realization may be a game changer to structure driven formulation of new therapeutics for SARS-CoV-2.<\/p>","DOI":"10.21203\/rs.3.rs-702792\/v2","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,1,25]],"date-time":"2022-01-25T20:38:42Z","timestamp":1643143122000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["\u00ad\u00adSARS-CoV-2 membrane protein: from genomic data to structural new insights"],"prefix":"10.21203","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6840-8991","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Catarina","family":"Marques-Pereira","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, University of Coimbra"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0416-0787","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Manuel","family":"Pires","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, University of Coimbra"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5092-4373","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Raquel","family":"Gouveia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, University of Coimbra"}]},{"given":"Nadia","family":"Pereira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, University of Coimbra"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4074-9142","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ana","family":"Caniceiro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, University of Coimbra"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7225-9287","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nicia","family":"Ros\u00e1rio-Ferreira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, University of Coimbra"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2970-5250","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Irina","family":"Moreira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Coimbra, Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology"}]}],"member":"297","container-title":[],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.researchsquare.com\/article\/rs-702792\/v2","content-type":"text\/html","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.researchsquare.com\/article\/rs-702792\/v2.html","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2022,1,25]],"date-time":"2022-01-25T20:38:49Z","timestamp":1643143129000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.researchsquare.com\/article\/rs-702792\/v2"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2022,1,25]]},"references-count":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.21203\/rs.3.rs-702792\/v2","relation":{},"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2022,1,25]]},"subtype":"preprint"}}