title: Rous sarcoma virus RNA stability requires an open reading frame in the gag gene and sequences downstream of the gag-pol junction.
abstract: The intracellular accumulation of the unspliced RNA of Rous sarcoma virus was decreased when translation was prematurely terminated by the introduction of nonsense codons within its 5' proximal gene, the gag gene. Subcellular fractionation of transfected cells suggested that nonsense codon-mediated instability occurred in the cytoplasm. Analysis of constructs containing an in-frame deletion in the nucleocapsid domain of gag, which prevents interaction between the Gag protein and viral RNA, showed that an open reading frame extending to approximately 30 nucleotides from the natural gag termination codon was needed for RNA stability. Sequences at the gag-pol junction necessary for ribosomal frameshifting were not required for RNA stability; however, sequences located 100 to 200 nucleotides downstream of the natural gag termination codon were found to be necessary for stable RNA. The stability of RNAs lacking this downstream sequence was not markedly affected by premature termination codons. We propose that this downstream RNA sequence may interact with ribosomes translating gag to stabilize the RNA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218.
authors.forename: G F
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Barker
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Beemon
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001358:Avian Sarcoma Viruses / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D002460:Cell Line; D002642:Chick Embryo; D015967:Gene Expression Regulation, Viral; D015683:Gene Products, gag / Q000235:genetics; D015750:Genes, gag; D015751:Genes, pol; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis; D011506:Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry*; D012270:Ribosomes / Q000378:metabolism; D017384:Sequence Deletion; D013347:Subcellular Fractions / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D015683:Gene Products, gag; D011506:Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D012367:RNA, Viral