“…Except for the nucleocapsid protein (N), all other structural proteins so far identified are associated with the lipid membrane. The integral membrane protein (M), which is largely embedded in the lipid bilayer targets the site of virus morphogenesis (Tooze et al, 1984) and may be implicated in viral pathogenesis (Fleming et al, 1989), whereas the bulbous peplomer (S) protein is responsible for virus binding (Cavanagh & Davis, 1986;Koch et al, 1990) as well as virulence and tissue tropism (Wege et al, 1988). An additional surface protein (HE), responsible for haemagglutination, has been found in bovine coronavirus (BCV; King et al, 1985;Hogue et al, 1989;Parker et al, 1989), human respiratory coronavirus strain OC43 (HCV-OC43; Hogue & Brian, 1985), haemagglutinating encephalitis virus of swine (Callebaut & Pensaert, 1980), diarrhoea virus of infant mice (Sugiyama et al, 1986) and turkey coronavirus (TCV; Dea et al, 1986).…”