“Contact tracing” inside infected cells is providing new clues into the workings of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

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A research team at the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Israel Institute for Biological Research, in Ness Ziona, Israel, used the contacts between the virus’s genetic material and the cells’ protein-producing machinery to bring to light details of the viral protein-coding segments and the new and potentially important proteins they create. The findings of this research, published in Nature, could lead to better diagnostics or new treatments, as well as helping to explain what makes this virus so good at the process of infection.

Despite being the subject of thousands of studies, SARS-CoV-2 has remained puzzling, in part, due to the fact that it is one of the largest, most complex known RNA viruses. Most maps of the virus to date have relied on genetic sequencing, building on what is known about other, related coronaviruses (for example SARS) and running computer predictions. The new approach, in contrast, was based on the idea that RNA translation – the process of converting RNA instructions into proteins that are manufactured in the cell – could be much more informative, and it would not have to be based on any previous virus mapping or a-priori assumptions.