Figure 1
From: Structural analysis of the coronavirus main protease for the design of pan-variant inhibitors
Selectivity and promiscuity of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro. (a) The frequently occurring atoms of the residues of SARS-CoV (yellow-green gradient mesh representation) and SARS-CoV-2 (white-red gradient surface representation) Mpro (SARS-CoV Mpro: aquamarine cartoon tube, SARS-CoV-2 Mpro: beige cartoon tube) with small spheres indicating conserved atoms (CPK colour). The most conserved part for SARS-CoV-2 is at Cys38 while the ones for SARS-CoV is shifted down at the location surrounding the mainchain oxygen of Val148. (b) The superposed Mpro structures of SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 illustrating the key conserved residues among each dataset (transparent spheres: frequently occurring residues from SARS-CoV; dot clusters: frequently occurring residues from SARS-CoV-2). Gly146 and 149 are the anchoring residues presented from both data sets (purple sphere and overlapped with dots). These main chain atoms of glycines can be the location for pan-coronaviral drug design. The Ile106 and Ala206 (green dots) are unique position specific residues in SARS-CoV-2 data set and thus can be specificity determining residues. The figure was created by using PyMOL Version 2.5.3 (https://pymol.org)25.
