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Journal of Virology, March 2009, p. 2119-2129, Vol. 83, No. 5
0022-538X/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.02113-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Structural Characterization of the Rous Sarcoma Virus RNA Stability Element{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Jason E. Weil, Michalis Hadjithomas, and Karen L. Beemon*

Department of Biology, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218

Received 7 October 2008/ Accepted 8 December 2008

In eukaryotic cells, an mRNA bearing a premature termination codon (PTC) or an abnormally long 3' untranslated region (UTR) is often degraded by the nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) pathway. Despite the presence of a 5- to 7-kb 3' UTR, unspliced retroviral RNA escapes this degradation. We previously identified the Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) stability element (RSE), an RNA element downstream of the gag natural translation termination codon that prevents degradation of the unspliced viral RNA. Insertion of this element downstream of a PTC in the RSV gag gene also inhibits NMD. Using partial RNase digestion and selective 2'-hydroxyl acylation analyzed by primer extension (SHAPE) chemistry, we determined the secondary structure of this element. Incorporating RNase and SHAPE data into structural prediction programs definitively shows that the RSE contains an AU-rich stretch of about 30 single-stranded nucleotides near the 5' end and two substantial stem-loop structures. The overall secondary structure of the RSE appears to be conserved among 20 different avian retroviruses. The structural aspects of this element will serve as a tool in the future design of cis mutants in addressing the mechanism of stabilization.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biology, The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Phone: (410) 516-4693. Fax: (410) 516-5213. E-mail: KLB{at}jhu.edu

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 17 December 2008.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://jvi.asm.org/.

Journal of Virology, March 2009, p. 2119-2129, Vol. 83, No. 5
0022-538X/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.02113-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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