Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Tertiary Structural And Functional Analyses Of A Viroid Rna Motif By Isostericity Matrix And Mutagenesis Reveal Its Essential Role In Replication, Neocles B. Leontis, Xuehua Zhong, Shuiming Qian, Asuka Itaya, Yijun Qi, Kathleen Boris-Lawrie, Biao Ding

Chemistry Faculty Publications

RNA-templated RNA replication is essential for viral or viroid infection, as well as for regulation of cellular gene expression. Specific RNA motifs likely regulate various aspects of this replication. Viroids of the Pospiviroidae family, as represented by the Potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTVd), replicate in the nucleus by utilizing DNA-dependent RNA polymerase II. We investigated the role of the loop E (sarcin/ricin) motif of the PSTVd genomic RNA in replication. A tertiary-structural model of this motif, inferred by comparative sequence analysis and comparison with nuclear magnetic resonance and X-ray crystal structures of loop E motifs in other RNAs, is presented …