title: Role of RNA structures in genome terminal sequences of the hepatitis C virus for replication and assembly.
abstract: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a positive-strand RNA virus replicating its genome via a negative-strand [(-)] intermediate. Little is known about replication signals residing in the 3' end of HCV (-) RNA. Recent studies identified seven stem-loop structures (SL-I', -IIz', -IIy', -IIIa', -IIIb', -IIIcdef', and -IV') in this region. In the present study, we mapped the minimal region required for RNA replication to SL-I' and -IIz', functionally confirmed the SL-IIz' structure, and identified SL-IIIa' to -IV' as auxiliary replication elements. In addition, we show that the 5' nontranslated region of the genome most likely does not contain cis-acting RNA structures required for RNA packaging into infectious virions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Virology, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 345, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Friebe
authors.forename: Ralf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bartenschlager
mesh_terms: D002460:Cell Line; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D016297:Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D019065:Virus Assembly / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D014779:Virus Replication / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral