Functional RNA Structures in the 3'UTR of Tick-Borne, Insect-Specific and No-Known-Vector Flaviviruses

Functional RNA Structures in the 3'UTR of Tick-Borne, Insect-Specific and No-Known-Vector Flaviviruses

Abstract

Untranslated regions (UTRs) of flaviviruses contain a large number of RNA structural elements involved in mediating the viral life cycle, including cyclisation, replication, and encapsidation. Here we report on a comparative genomics approach to characterize evolutionarily conserved RNAs in the 3′UTR of tick-borne, insect-specific and no-known-vector flaviviruses in silico. Our data support the wide distribution of previously experimentally characterized exoribonuclease resistant RNAs (xrRNAs) within tick-borne and no-known-vector flaviviruses and provide evidence for the existence of a cascade of duplicated RNA structures within insect-specific flaviviruses. On a broader scale, our findings indicate that viral 3′UTRs represent a flexible scaffold for evolution to come up with novel xrRNAs.

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Authors
  • Ochsenreiter, Roman
  • Hofacker, Ivo L.
  • Wolfinger, Michael T.
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Shortfacts
Category
Journal Paper
Divisions
Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
Journal or Publication Title
Viruses 2019
ISSN
1999-4915
Publisher
MDPI
Place of Publication
Basel, Switzerland
Page Range
p. 298
Number
3
Volume
11
Date
24 March 2019
Official URL
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v11030298
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