Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS FEATURE

How the coronavirus infects cells — and why Delta is so dangerous

Scientists are unpicking the life cycle of SARS-CoV-2 and how the virus uses tricks to evade detection.
  1. Megan Scudellari

    1. Megan Scudellari is a science journalist in Boston, Massachusetts.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

The coronavirus sports a luxurious sugar coat. “It’s striking,” thought Rommie Amaro, staring at her computer simulation of one of the trademark spike proteins of SARS-CoV-2, which stick out from the virus’s surface. It was swathed in sugar molecules, known as glycans.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 595, 640-644 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02039-y

References

  1. Casalino, L. et al. ACS Cent. Sci. 6, 1722–1734 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Ke, Z. et al. Nature 588, 498–502 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Turoňová, B. et al. Science 370, 203–208 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Nguyen, H. L. et al. J. Phys. Chem. B 124, 7336–7347 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Shang, J. et al. Nature 581, 221–224 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Gobeil, S. M.-C. et al. Science https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abi6226 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Khateeb, J., Li, Y. & Zhang, H. Crit. Care 25, 244 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Hoffmann, M. et al. Cell 181, 271–280 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Peacock, T. P. et al. Nature Microbiol. 6, 899–909 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Wang, M. et al. Cell Res. 30, 269–271 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Gunst, J. D. et al. EClinicalMedicine 35, 100894 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Finkel, Y. et al. Nature 594, 240–245 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Schubert, K. et al. Nature Struct. Mol. Biol. 27, 959–966 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Thoms, M. et al. Science 369, 1249–1255 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Zhang, K. et al. Sci. Adv. 7, eabe7386 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Blanco-Melo, D. et al. Cell 181, 1036–1045 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Thorne, L. G. et al. Preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.06.446826 (2021).

  18. Braga, L. et al. Nature 594, 88–93 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Zhang, Z. et al. Cell Death Differ. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41418-021-00782-3 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Trimarco, J. D. et al. PLoS Pathog. 17, e1009599 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Wolff, G. et al. Science 369, 1395–1398 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Ghosh, S. et al. Cell 183, 1520–1535 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Hoffmann, M., Kleine-Weber, H. & Pöhlmann, S. Mol. Cell 78, 779–784 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Mykytyn, A. Z. et al. eLife 10, e64508 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Gordon, D. E. et al. Nature 583, 459–468 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Li, B. et al. Preprint at medRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.07.21260122 (2021).

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

  • FACULTY POSITION IN PATHOLOGY RESEARCH

    Dallas, Texas (US)

    The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern Medical Center)

  • Postdoc Fellow / Senior Scientist

    The Yakoub and Sulzer labs at Harvard Medical School-Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Columbia University

    Boston, Massachusetts (US)

    Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital

  • Postdoc in Computational Genomics – Machine Learning for Multi-Omics Profiling of Cancer Evolution

    Computational Postdoc - Artificial Intelligence in Oncology and Regulatory Genomics and Cancer Evolution at the DKFZ - limited to 2 years

    Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg (DE)

    German Cancer Research Center in the Helmholtz Association (DKFZ)

  • Computational Postdoc

    The German Cancer Research Center is the largest biomedical research institution in Germany.

    Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg (DE)

    German Cancer Research Center in the Helmholtz Association (DKFZ)

  • PhD / PostDoc Medical bioinformatics (m/f/d)

    The Institute of Medical Bioinformatics and Systems Medicine / University of Freiburg is looking for a PhD/PostDoc Medical bioinformatics (m/w/d)

    Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg (DE)

    University of Freiburg

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links