Analysis of the structure and interactions of the SARS-CoV-2 ORF7b accessory protein

SARS-CoV-2 carries a sizeable number of proteins that are accessory to replication but may be essential for virus-host interactions and modulation of the host immune response. Here, we investigated the structure and interactions of the largely unknown ORF7b, a small membranous accessory membrane protein of SARS-CoV-2. We show that structural predictions indicate a transmembrane (TM) leucine zipper for ORF7b, and experimentally confirm the predominantly α-helical secondary structure within a phospholipid membrane mimetic by solid-state NMR. We also show that ORF7b forms heterogeneous higher-order multimers. We determined ORF7b interactions with cellular TM leucine zipper proteins using both biochemical and NMR approaches, providing evidence for ORF7b interaction with the TM domains of E-cadherin, as well as phospholamban. Our results place ORF7b as a hypothetical interferer in cellular processes that utilize leucine zipper motifs in transmembrane multimerization domains.