Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 25, 2025

A Fluorogenic Peptide Cleavage Assay to Screen for Proteolytic Activity: Applications for coronavirus spike protein activation
Published on: January 9, 2019
Furin cleavage sites naturally occur in coronaviruses
1iHuman Institute, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 201210, China.
Abstract:
The spike protein is a focused target of COVID-19, a pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2. A 12-nt insertion at S1/S2 in the spike coding sequence yields a furin cleavage site, which raised controversy views on origin of the virus. Here we analyzed the phylogenetic relationships of coronavirus spike proteins and mapped furin recognition motif on the tree. Furin cleavage sites occurred independently for multiple times in the evolution of the coronavirus family, supporting the natural occurring hypothesis of SARS-CoV-2.
Related Concept Videos
Leaky Scanning
Ribozymes
Ribozymes can...
Caspases
Amyloid Fibrils
Amyloid deposits were observed as early as 1639 in the liver and the spleen. In 1854, Rudolph Virchow performed iodine staining,...
Restriction Enzymes
The host bacteria protect their own genomic DNA from these enzymes by methylating these sites. Some...
Clot Retraction and Fibrinolysis

