Structural features in the Rous sarcoma virus RNA stability element are necessary for sensing the correct termination codon.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) is an mRNA quality control mechanism that selectively recognizes and targets for degradation mRNAs containing premature termination codons. Retroviral full-length RNA is presented to the host translation machinery with characteristics rarely observed among host cell mRNAs: a long 3' UTR, retained introns, and multiple open reading frames. As a result, the viral RNA is predicted to be recognized by the host NMD machinery and degraded. In the case of the Rous sarcoma virus (RSV), we identified a stability element (RSE), which resides immediately downstream of the gag termination codon and facilitates NMD evasion.

Results

We defined key RNA features of the RSE through directed mutagenesis of the virus. These data suggest that the mi

SUBMITTER: Withers JB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2925335 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature