A three-dimensional RNA motif mediates directional trafficking of Potato spindle tuber viroid from epidermal to palisade mesophyll cells in Nicotiana benthamiana.

ABSTRACT: Potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTVd) is a circular non-coding RNA of 359 nucleotides that replicates and spreads systemically in host plants, thus all functions required to establish an infection are mediated by sequence and structural elements in the genome. The PSTVd secondary structure contains 26 Watson-Crick base-paired stems and 27 loops. Most of the loops are believed to form three-dimensional (3D) structural motifs through non-Watson-Crick base pairing, base stacking, and other local interactions. Homology-based prediction using the JAR3D online program revealed that loop 27 (nucleotides 177-182) most likely forms a 3D structure similar to the loop of a conserved hairpin located in the 3' untranslated region of histone mRNAs in animal cells. This stem-loop, which is involved in 3'-e

SUBMITTER: Wu J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6827988 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature