tailieunhanh - Báo cáo y học: " The retroviral RNA dimer linkage: different structures may reflect different roles"

Tuyển tập các báo cáo nghiên cứu về y học được đăng trên tạp chí y học quốc tế cung cấp cho các bạn kiến thức về ngành y đề tài: The retroviral RNA dimer linkage: different structures may reflect different roles | Retrovirology BioMed Central Review Open Access The retroviral RNA dimer linkage different structures may reflect different roles Jane Greatorex Address Division of Infectious Diseases Dept. of Medicine University of Cambridge Addenbrooke s Hospital Hills Road Cambridge CB2 2QQ UK Email Jane Greatorex - jg10018@ Corresponding author Published 18 August 2004 Retrovirology 2004 1 22 doi 1742-4690-1-22 Received 10 August 2004 Accepted 18 August 2004 This article is available from http content 1 1 22 2004 Greatorex licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http licenses by which permits unrestricted use distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Retroviruses are unique among virus families in having dimeric genomes. The RNA sequences and structures that link the two RNA molecules vary and these differences provide clues as to the role of this feature in the viral lifecycles. This review draws upon examples from different retroviral families. Differences and similarities in both secondary and tertiary structure are discussed. The implication of varying roles for the dimer linkage in related viruses is considered. Introduction With relatively few genes compared to many other virus families the retroviridae have evolved over the millenia to maximise the functions of their RNA genome. The genome serves as a versatile template from which various proteins can be translated by the use of splicing and by translational flexibility using scanning IRES and frameshifting. It is also an RNA molecule capable of interacting with itself and cellular and viral proteins. By these means from an RNA around 7 - 12 kilobases long the retroviridae have evolved to infect a wide range of species and cell types. A unique characteristic of retroviral genomes is the fact that they .