How the coronavirus multiplies its genetic material

When someone becomes infected with the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, the pathogen proliferates rapidly in the cells of the infected person. To do so, the virus has to multiply its genetic material, which consists of a single long RNA strand. This task is performed by the viral "copy machine," the so-called polymerase. Researchers led by Patrick Cramer at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany, have now determined the 3-D structure of the corona polymerase. This makes it now possible to investigate how antiviral drugs such as remdesivir—which blocks the polymerase—work, and to search for new inhibitory substances.

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