Bioinformatics and functional analyses of coronavirus nonstructural proteins involved in the formation of replicative organelles

•Bioinformatics reveals a new domain-level map of coronavirus nsp3-nsp6.•Domain-level protein variability is a tool for functional annotation.•Ten nsp3 domains are conserved in all known coronaviruses.•Review of the role of the nsp5 main protease in RNA synthesis.

Replication of eukaryotic positive-stranded RNA viruses is usually linked to the presence of membrane-associated replicative organelles. The purpose of this review is to discuss the function of proteins responsible for formation of the coronavirus replicative organelle. This will be done by identifying domains that are conserved across the order Nidovirales, and by summarizing what is known about function and structure at the level of protein domains.