The
coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
pandemic has claimed the lives of over one million people worldwide. The causative agent,
severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (
SARS-CoV-2), is a member of the
Coronaviridae family of
viruses that can cause
respiratory infections of varying severity. The cellular host factors and pathways co-opted during
SARS-CoV-2 and related
coronavirus life cycles remain ill defined. To
address this gap, we performed
genome-scale
CRISPR knockout
screens during
infection by
SARS-CoV-2 and three seasonal
coronaviruses (
HCoV-OC43,
HCoV-NL63, and
HCoV-229E). These
screens uncovered host factors and pathways with pan-
coronavirus and
virus-specific functional
roles, including major dependency on glycosaminoglycan
biosynthesis, sterol regulatory element-
binding protein (SREBP) signaling,
bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling, and
glycosylphosphatidylinositol biosynthesis, as well as a requirement for several poorly characterized
proteins. We identified an absolute requirement for the VMP1, TMEM41, and TMEM64 (VTT) domain-containing protein transmembrane protein 41B (TMEM41B) for
infection by
SARS-CoV-2 and three seasonal
coronaviruses. This
human coronavirus host factor compendium represents a rich
resource to develop new
therapeutic strategies for acute COVID-19 and potential
future coronavirus pandemics.