Envelope protein of coronaviruses is a structural protein existing in both monomeric and homo-pentameric form. It has been related to a multitude of roles including virus infection, replication, dissemination and immune response stimulation. In the present study, we employed an immunoinformatic approach to investigate the major immunogenic domains of the SARS-CoV-2 envelope protein and map them among the homologue proteins of coronaviruses with tropism for animal species that are closely inter-related with the human beings population all over the world. Also, when not available, we predicted the envelope protein structural folding and mapped SARS-CoV-2 epitopes. Envelope sequences alignment provides evidence of high sequence homology for some of the investigated virus specimens; while the structural mapping of epitopes resulted in the interesting maintenance of the structural folding and epitope sequence localization also in the envelope proteins scoring a lower alignment score. In line with the One-Health approach, our evidences provide a molecular structural rationale for a potential role of taxonomically related coronaviruses in conferring protection from SARS-CoV-2 infection and identifying potential candidates for the development of diagnostic tools and prophylactic-oriented strategies.

冠状病毒的包膜蛋白是一种以单体和同源五聚体形式存在的结构蛋白。它与多种作用有关，包括病毒感染、复制、传播和免疫反应刺激。在本研究中，我们采用免疫信息学方法来研究 SARS-CoV-2 包膜蛋白的主要免疫原性结构域，并将它们映射到与人类密切相关的动物物种的冠状病毒同源蛋白中。世界各地。此外，在无法获得的情况下，我们预测了包膜蛋白的结构折叠并绘制了 SARS-CoV-2 表位图。包膜序列比对为一些所研究的病毒样本提供了高度序列同源性的证据；而表位的结构作图也导致了在得分较低的比对得分的包膜蛋白中结构折叠和表位序列定位的有趣维持。根据“同一个健康”方法，我们的证据为分类学相关的冠状病毒在提供针对 SARS-CoV-2 感染的保护以及确定开发诊断工具和预防策略的潜在候选者方面的潜在作用提供了分子结构原理。