Structure of the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid and their perspectives for drug design

Nucleocapsid (N) protein is the major structural component of the SARS-CoV-2 virion and is involvement in viral replication. The crystal structures of N- and C-terminal domains (NTD and CTD) of N protein were solved.  The two domains are connected by an intrinsically disordered region, called the central linker region, containing Ser/Arg-rich region that contains putative phosphorylation sites. Only NTD and CTD are possible to be resolved at an crystal form. The NTD contains RNA-binding domain, and CTD contains dimerization domain as well as RNA-binding domain.