The coronavirus N protein is required for coronavirus RNA synthesis and has RNA chaperone activity that may be involved in template switch. Nucleocapsid protein is the most abundant protein of coronavirus. N protein packages the positive strand viral genome RNA into a helical ribonucleocapsid (RNP) and plays a fundamental role during virion assembly through its interactions with the viral genome and membrane protein M. Plays an essential role in enhancing the efficiency of subgenomic viral RNA transcription as well as viral replication. The N protein of coronavirus is chosen as a diagnostic tool because of the conservation of the N protein sequence and its strong immunogenicity.
