Structural basis for transcriptional start site control of HIV-1 RNA fate.

ABSTRACT: Heterogeneous transcriptional start site usage by HIV-1 produces 5'-capped RNAs beginning with one, two, or three 5'-guanosines (^Cap1G, ^Cap2G, or ^Cap3G, respectively) that are either selected for packaging as genomes (^Cap1G) or retained in cells as translatable messenger RNAs (mRNAs) (^Cap2G and ^Cap3G). To understand how 5'-guanosine number influences fate, we probed the structures of capped HIV-1 leader RNAs by deuterium-edited nuclear magnetic resonance. The ^Cap1G transcript adopts a dimeric multihairpin structure that sequesters the cap, inhibits interactions with eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E, and resists decapping. The ^Cap2G and ^Cap3G transcripts adopt an alternate structure

SUBMITTER: Brown JD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7351118 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature