Structural and functional conservation of cis-acting RNA elements in coronavirus 5'-terminal genome regions.
Virology
; 517: 44-55, 2018 04.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-29223446
ABSTRACT
Structure predictions suggest a partial conservation of RNA structure elements in coronavirus terminal genome regions. Here, we determined the structures of stem-loops (SL) 1 and 2 of two alphacoronaviruses, human coronavirus (HCoV) 229E and NL63, by RNA structure probing and studied the functional relevance of these putative cis-acting elements. HCoV-229E SL1 and SL2 mutants generated by reverse genetics were used to study the effects on viral replication of single-nucleotide substitutions predicted to destabilize the SL1 and SL2 structures. The data provide conclusive evidence for the critical role of SL1 and SL2 in HCoV-229E replication and, in some cases, revealed parallels with previously characterized betacoronavirus SL1 and SL2 elements. Also, we were able to rescue viable HCoV-229E mutants carrying replacements of SL2 with equivalent betacoronavirus structural elements. The data obtained in this study reveal a remarkable degree of structural and functional conservation of 5'-terminal RNA structural elements across coronavirus genus boundaries.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid
/
Genome, Viral
/
Coronavirus 229E, Human
/
Coronavirus NL63, Human
Limits:
Humans
Language:
En
Journal:
Virology
Year:
2018
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country: