Functional conservation despite structural divergence in ligand-responsive RNA switches
Abstract
RNA viruses, including the human pathogenic hepatitis C virus (HCV), use a structured untranslated region of their genome to hijack host cell ribosomes for the synthesis of viral proteins. These genome regions are termed internal ribosome entry site (IRES) elements and are encoded by distinct sequences in different viruses but share common functional RNA motifs. This study shows that viral IRES elements contain conformationally flexible RNA switches, whose state can be captured by the binding of a common ligand. Conformational switching plays a role in the function of the IRES elements. These new RNA switches are smaller than previously discovered "riboswitches" and may be the simplest form of ligand-responsive mechanical modules in nucleic acids.
- Publication:
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- November 2014
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.1414678111
- Bibcode:
- 2014PNAS..11115952B