The COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease-2019) pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, is a significant threat to public health and the global economy. SARS-CoV-2 is closely related to the more lethal but less transmissible coronaviruses SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV. Here, we have carried out comparative viral-human protein-protein interaction and viral protein localization analysis for all three viruses. Subsequent functional genetic screening identified host factors that functionally impinge on coronavirus proliferation, including Tom70, a mitochondrial chaperone protein that interacts with both SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 Orf9b, an interaction we structurally characterized using cryo-EM. Combining genetically-validated host factors with both COVID-19 patient genetic data and medical billing records identified important molecular mechanisms and potential drug treatments that merit further molecular and clinical study.

Transient receptor potential (TRP) melastatin 4 (TRPM4) is a widely expressed cation channel associated with a variety of cardiovascular disorders. TRPM4 is activated by increased intracellular calcium in a voltage dependent manner, but unlike many other TRP channels is permeable to monovalent cations only. Here we present two structures of full-length human TRPM4 embedded in lipid nanodiscs at ~3Å resolution as determined by single particle electron cryo-microscopy. These structures, with and without calcium bound, reveal a general architecture for this major subfamily of TRP channels and a well-defined calcium binding site within the intracellular side of the S1–S4 domain. The structures correspond to two distinct closed states. Calcium binding induces conformational changes that likely prime the channel for voltage-dependent opening.