Evolution of a truncated nucleocapsid protein enhances SARS-CoV-2 fitness by suppressing antiviral responses.

Viruses face selective pressure to evade cellular antiviral responses to control the outcome of an infection. However, due to their limited genome size, viruses must adopt unique strategies to confront cellular sensors. Since its emergence in humans, SARS-CoV-2 accrued many mutations; however, the functional consequence of many such genetic changes remains unexplored. Here, we show that SARS-CoV-2 produces a truncated form of the nucleocapsid protein, called N*M210. Due to the acquisition of a v...