HGS⁺ enlarged vesicular compartments serve as the sites for coronavirus assembly at later infection stage

Science Bulletin, 5 February, 2026, DOI：https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scib.2026.02.011

HGS⁺ enlarged vesicular compartments serve as the sites for coronavirus assembly at later infection stage

Xubing Long, Buyun Tian, Rongrong Chen, Rong Bai, Jinping Yang, Yushuang Fang, Xinyue Fu, Yanhong Xue, Wei Ji, Tao Xu, Zonghong Li

Abstract

Coronaviruses exploit the host endomembrane system to establish specialized virion assembly sites. Initial electron microscopy (EM) studies of mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) infected cells at 6 to 7 h post-infection (hpi) revealed coronavirus assembly and budding are primarily associated with the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and Golgi, with viral particles also found in smooth-walled vesicles. Subsequent studies consistently documented coronavirus assembly and budding within the ER-Golgi intermediate compartment (ERGIC) and the Golgi region during the early infection stage. These observations were further corroborated by immuno-EM studies, which showed positive signals for ERGIC and Golgi biomarkers at the sites of virus budding . Since these studies were conducted during early infection (<8 hpi="">), when the morphology of cellular organelles remains relatively intact, coronavirus assembly and budding are generally thought to take place within the lumen of the ERGIC and Golgi compartments. It should be noted, however, that at this stage viral genome replication predominates, with relatively few virions being produced.

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