Knotty Zika Virus Blocks Exonuclease to Produce Subgenomic Flaviviral RNAs

Nandan S Gokhale; Stacy M Horner

doi:10.1016/j.chom.2016.12.013

Knotty Zika Virus Blocks Exonuclease to Produce Subgenomic Flaviviral RNAs

Cell Host Microbe. 2017 Jan 11;21(1):1-2. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2016.12.013.

Authors

Nandan S Gokhale¹, Stacy M Horner²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
² Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA; Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA. Electronic address: stacy.horner@duke.edu.

Abstract

In a recent issue of Science, Akiyama et al. (2016) prove the existence of a pseudoknot that stabilizes a nuclease-resistant RNA structure in the 3' untranslated region of Zika virus. This reinforced structure blocks the 5'→3' exonuclease Xrn1 for the production of pathogenic subgenomic flaviviral RNAs.

Keywords: RNA structure; Xrn1; Zika virus; sfRNA; xrRNA.

MeSH terms

Exoribonucleases / metabolism*
Host-Pathogen Interactions
Nucleic Acid Conformation*
RNA Stability / genetics*
RNA, Viral / genetics*
Zika Virus / genetics*
Zika Virus Infection / transmission
Zika Virus Infection / virology

Substances

RNA, Viral
Exoribonucleases

Grants and funding

R01 AI125416/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States