G-quadruplexes regulate Epstein-Barr virus-encoded nuclear antigen 1 mRNA translation.

ABSTRACT: Viruses that establish latent infections have evolved unique mechanisms to avoid host immune recognition. Maintenance proteins of these viruses regulate their synthesis to levels sufficient for maintaining persistent infection but below threshold levels for host immune detection. The mechanisms governing this finely tuned regulation of viral latency are unknown. Here we show that mRNAs encoding gammaherpesviral maintenance proteins contain within their open reading frames clusters of unusual structural elements, G-quadruplexes, which are responsible for the cis-acting regulation of viral mRNA translation. By studying the Epstein-Barr virus-encoded nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1) mRNA, we demonstrate that destabilization of G-quadruplexes using antisense oligonucleotides increases EBNA1 mRNA tran

SUBMITTER: Murat P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4188979 | biostudies-literature | 2014 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature