Changes in Rous Sarcoma Virus RNA Secondary Structure near the Primer Binding Site upon tRNA Trp Primer Annealing (original) (raw)

1999, Journal of Virology

Predicted secondary-structure elements encompassing the primer binding site in the 5′ untranslated region of Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) RNA play an integral role in multiple viral replications steps including reverse transcription, DNA integration, and RNA packaging (A. Aiyar, D. Cobrinik, Z. Ge, H. J. Kung, and J. Leis, J. Virol. 66:2464–2472, 1992; D. Cobrinik, A. Aiyar, Z. Ge, M. Katzman, H. Huang, and J. Leis, J. Virol. 65:3864–3872, 1991; J. T. Miller, Z. Ge, S. Morris, K. Das, and J. Leis, J. Virol. 71:7648–7656, 1997). These elements include the U5-Leader stem, U5-IR stem-loop, and U5-TΨC interaction region. Limited digestion of the 5′ untranslated region of wild-type and mutant RSV RNAs with structure- and/or sequence-specific RNases detects the presence of the U5-Leader stem and the U5-IR stem-loop. When a tRNA Trp primer is annealed to wild-type RNAs in vitro, limited nuclease mapping indicates that the U5-IR stem becomes partially unwound. This is not observed when mutant R...