A Discontinuous RNA Platform Mediates RNA Virus Replication: Building an Integrated Model for RNA–based Regulation of Viral Processes

PLoS Pathogens

Beth L. Nicholson¹  Hong Na¹  Baodong Wu¹  K. Andrew White¹  Judit Pogany²  Peter D. Nagy² 

[1] Department of Biology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada;Department of Plant Pathology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, United States of America

关键词: RNA structure;    RNA synthesis;    RNA viruses;    Viral genomics;    Viral replication;    Messenger RNA;    Protein translation;    Viral genome;   

DOI  :  10.1371/journal.ppat.1000323

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Public Library of Science

【 摘 要 】

Plus-strand RNA viruses contain RNA elements within their genomes that mediate a variety of fundamental viral processes. The traditional view of these elements is that of local RNA structures. This perspective, however, is changing due to increasing discoveries of functional viral RNA elements that are formed by long-range RNA–RNA interactions, often spanning thousands of nucleotides. The plus-strand RNA genomes of tombusviruses exemplify this concept by possessing different long-range RNA–RNA interactions that regulate both viral translation and transcription. Here we report that a third fundamental tombusvirus process, viral genome replication, requires a long-range RNA–based interaction spanning ∼3000 nts. In vivo and in vitro analyses suggest that the discontinuous RNA platform formed by the interaction facilitates efficient assembly of the viral RNA replicase. This finding has allowed us to build an integrated model for the role of global RNA structure in regulating the reproduction of a eukaryotic RNA virus, and the insights gained have extended our understanding of the multifunctional nature of viral RNA genomes.

【 授权许可】

CC BY