Ribosomal Frameshifting in Decoding Plant Viral RNAs

ABSTRACT: Frameshifting provides an elegant mechanism by which viral RNA both encodes overlapping genes and controls expression levels of those genes. As in animal viruses, the −1 ribosomal frameshift site in the viral mRNA consists of a canonical shifty heptanucleotide followed by a highly structured frameshift stimulatory element, and the gene translated as a result of frameshifting usually encodes the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. In plant viruses, the −1 frameshift stimulatory element consists of either (i) a small pseudoknot stabilized by many triple-stranded regions and a triple base pair containing a protonated cytidine at the helical junction, (ii) an unusual apical loop–internal loop interaction in which a stem-loop in the 3′ untranslated region 4 kb downstream base pairs to a bulged stem-l

SUBMITTER: Miller W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7122378 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature