cis acting RNA sequences control the gag-pol translation readthrough in murine leukemia virus

Alik Honigman*, Dana Wolf, Shoshanit Yaish, Haya Falk, Amos Panet

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

39 Scopus citations

Abstract

The pol gene of the Moloney murine leukemia virus (M-MuLV) is expressed as a Gag-Pol fusion protein through an in-frame suppression of the UAG termination codon located between the two genes. The role of nucleotide context in suppression was investigated, in a rabbit reticulocyte lysate translation system, using site-directed mutagenesis. The results indicate that the translational readthrough is mediated by at least 50 bases long RNA sequence located 3′ to the gag UAG termination codon. Within this sequence a short purine-rich sequence adjacent to the amber codon, highly conserved among different retroviruses, appears essential for M-MuLV suppression. Two alternative putative stem and loop like RNA structures can be drawn at the gag-pol junction, one abutting the gag UAG codon, and the second downstream to it. None of these structures appears to be important to the suppression process.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)313-319
Number of pages7
JournalVirology
Volume183
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 1991

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