The secondary structure of the 5' end of the FIV genome reveals a long-range interaction between R/U5 and gag sequences, and a large, stable stem-loop.

ABSTRACT: Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) is a lentivirus that infects cats and is related to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Although it is a common worldwide infection, and has potential uses as a human gene therapy vector and as a nonprimate model for HIV infection, little detail is known of the viral life cycle. Previous experiments have shown that its packaging signal includes two or more regions within the first 511 nucleotides of the genomic RNA. We have undertaken a secondary structural analysis of this RNA by minimal free-energy structural prediction, biochemical mapping, and phylogenetic analysis, and show that it contains five conserved stem-loops and a conserved long-range interaction between heptanucleotide sequences 5'-CCCUGUC-3' in R/U5 and 5'-GACAGGG-3' in gag. This long-rang

SUBMITTER: Kenyon JC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2590967 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature