title: Self-Folding of Naked Segment 8 Genomic RNA of Influenza A Virus.
abstract: Influenza A is a negative sense RNA virus that kills hundreds of thousands of humans each year. Base pairing in RNA is very favorable, but possibilities for RNA secondary structure of the influenza genomic RNA have not been investigated. This work presents the first experimentally-derived exploration of potential secondary structure in an influenza A naked (protein-free) genomic segment. Favorable folding regions are revealed by in vitro chemical structure mapping, thermodynamics, bioinformatics, and binding to isoenergetic microarrays of an entire natural sequence of the 875 nt segment 8 vRNA and of a smaller fragment. Segment 8 has thermodynamically stable and evolutionarily conserved RNA structure and encodes essential viral proteins NEP and NS1. This suggests that vRNA self-folding may generate helixes and loops that are important at one or more stages of the influenza life cycle.
authors: Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Noskowskiego 12/14, 61-704 Poznan, Poland.
authors: Elzbieta
authors: E
authors: Lenartowicz
authors: Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Noskowskiego 12/14, 61-704 Poznan, Poland.
authors: Julita
authors: J
authors: Kesy
authors: Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Noskowskiego 12/14, 61-704 Poznan, Poland.
authors: Agnieszka
authors: A
authors: Ruszkowska
authors: Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Noskowskiego 12/14, 61-704 Poznan, Poland.
authors: Marta
authors: M
authors: Soszynska-Jozwiak
authors: Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Noskowskiego 12/14, 61-704 Poznan, Poland.
authors: Paula
authors: P
authors: Michalak
authors: Department of Chemistry, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, 14627, United States of America.
authors: Walter N
authors: WN
authors: Moss
authors: Department of Chemistry, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, 14627, United States of America.
authors: Douglas H
authors: DH
authors: Turner
authors: Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Noskowskiego 12/14, 61-704 Poznan, Poland.
authors: Ryszard
authors: R
authors: Kierzek
authors: Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Noskowskiego 12/14, 61-704 Poznan, Poland.
authors: Elzbieta
authors: E
authors: Kierzek
mesh_terms: D020029:Base Pairing; D001483:Base Sequence; D003198:Computer Simulation; D016679:Genome, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D053124:Influenza A Virus, H5N1 Subtype / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D059370:RNA Folding; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral