AI Article Synopsis
- Researchers predicted conserved RNA secondary structures in the nucleoprotein segment of the influenza A virus genome by analyzing sequences and structures across different viruses.
- They discovered several structural elements with nucleotide covariations, indicating these structures significantly influence the virus's genome evolution.
- A specific pseudoknot structure in the packaging signal was shown to be functionally important, as experiments with mutant viruses demonstrated the effects of disrupting and restoring this structure.
Article Abstract
Conserved RNA secondary structures were predicted in the nucleoprotein (NP) segment of the influenza A virus genome using comparative sequence and structure analysis. A number of structural elements exhibiting nucleotide covariations were identified over the whole segment length, including protein-coding regions. Calculations of mutual information values at the paired nucleotide positions demonstrate that these structures impose considerable constraints on the virus genome evolution. Functional importance of a pseudoknot structure, predicted in the NP packaging signal region, was confirmed by plaque assays of the mutant viruses with disrupted structure and those with restored folding using compensatory substitutions. Possible functions of the conserved RNA folding patterns in the influenza A virus genome are discussed.
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|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4179967 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.4161/rna.29730 | DOI Listing |
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