Distinct families of cis-acting RNA replication elements epsilon from hepatitis B viruses.

ABSTRACT: The hepadnavirus encapsidation signal, epsilon (ε), is an RNA structure located at the 5' end of the viral pregenomic RNA. It is essential for viral replication and functions in polymerase protein binding and priming. This structure could also have potential regulatory roles in controlling the expression of viral replicative proteins. In addition to its structure, the primary sequence of this RNA element has crucial functional roles in the viral lifecycle. Although the ε elements in hepadnaviruses share common critical functions, there are some significant differences in mammalian and avian hepadnaviruses, which include both sequence and structural variations.   Here we present several covariance models for ε elements from the Hepadnaviridae. The model building included experimentally

SUBMITTER: Chen A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3346311 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature