author(s)
Swagatika Priyadarsini, Snehasmita Panda, Rohit Singh, Amrita Behera, Prachurya Biswal, Puja Mech and Karthikeyan Ramaiyan

abstract
Among the four structural proteins of SARS-CoV-2, nucleocapsid (N) is a highly conserved protein based on its structure and sequence. In the recent past, X-ray crystallographic and NMR studies performed by various researchers on the N protein of SARS-CoV revealed that it is a multifunctional protein with the primary role of binding to the genomic RNA of the virus and forming ribonucleoprotein complex. The protein has been observed to be involved in the regulation of host cellular homeostasis in addition to its function in regulating the viral genome replication and transcription. An attempt has been made to reveal the biochemical and structural characteristics of the nucleocapsid protein of SARS-CoV-2 using several online tools. The predicted secondary and tertiary structures of the protein can be used to map various epitopes and also to hunt for several drug binding sites in future.