Long-distance RNA-RNA interactions in the coronavirus genome form high-order structures promoting discontinuous RNA synthesis during transcription.

ABSTRACT: Coronavirus (CoV) transcription requires a high-frequency recombination process that links newly synthesized minus-strand subgenomic RNA copies to the leader region, which is present only once, at the 5' end of the genome. This discontinuous RNA synthesis step is based on the complementarity between the transcription-regulating sequences (TRSs) at the leader region and those preceding each gene in the nascent minus-strand RNA. Furthermore, the template switch requires the physical proximity of RNA genome domains located between 20,000 and 30,000 nucleotides apart. In this report, it is shown that the efficacy of this recombination step is promoted by novel additional long-distance RNA-RNA interactions between RNA motifs located close to the TRSs controlling the expression of each gene and

SUBMITTER: Mateos-Gomez PA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3536410 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature