A Spike protein or peplomer is a glycoprotein spike on the outside layer (or capsid) of a virus.[1] When a virus attaches to a cell, these peplomers can only attach to certain receptors on the cell. They are very important for choosing which cell it attaches to and how infectious a virus is.

Thumb
The red and orange parts of this coronavirus are peplomers

References

Wikiwand in your browser!

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.

Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.