"The function of the spike glycoprotein is to mediate viral entry into the host cell by first interacting with molecules on the exterior cell surface and then fusing the viral and cellular membranes. " Because the spike protein is needed for mediating viral entry to the cell it has to remain in a particular structure to do that job. And so major changes to it would make it work less effectively, some minor changes might not, thus is is relatively unchanging a.k.a. conserved, because if it changed on a given virus particle, that particle wouldn’t function, and thus wouldn’t replicate.
i imagine scientists were looking to targeting the Conserved portions of the protein, basiclaly sequences, amino acids dont change that much or mutate because its necessary for the stability of the protein. the current ones target the mutagenic parts. I do read up research on viruses alot, especially the research paper, its pretyt interesting how different virus uses different host evasion systems.
Generally I think you’ve got it. One thing to add, when you say protein above it’s specifically the Spike Protein.
This article goes into it on a much deeper level than I would be able to explain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus_spike_protein
"The function of the spike glycoprotein is to mediate viral entry into the host cell by first interacting with molecules on the exterior cell surface and then fusing the viral and cellular membranes. " Because the spike protein is needed for mediating viral entry to the cell it has to remain in a particular structure to do that job. And so major changes to it would make it work less effectively, some minor changes might not, thus is is relatively unchanging a.k.a. conserved, because if it changed on a given virus particle, that particle wouldn’t function, and thus wouldn’t replicate.
i imagine scientists were looking to targeting the Conserved portions of the protein, basiclaly sequences, amino acids dont change that much or mutate because its necessary for the stability of the protein. the current ones target the mutagenic parts. I do read up research on viruses alot, especially the research paper, its pretyt interesting how different virus uses different host evasion systems.