Polysomally protected viruses. (24th June 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wilkinson, Michael; Yllanes, David; Huber, Greg
• Is Part Of: Physical biology. Volume 18:Number 4(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-06-24
• Subjects: narnavirus -- ribosome -- polysome -- ambigram; Biophysics -- Periodicals; Biochemistry -- Periodicals; Biology -- Data processing -- Periodicals; 570.5
• DOI: 10.1088/1478-3975/abf5b5
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1478-3967

Abstract

Abstract: It is conceivable that an RNA virus could use a polysome, that is, a string of ribosomes covering the RNA strand, to protect the genetic material from degradation inside a host cell. This paper discusses how such a virus might operate, and how its presence might be detected by ribosome profiling. There are two possible forms for such a polysomally protected virus, depending upon whether just the forward strand or both the forward and complementary strands can be encased by ribosomes (these will be termed type 1 and type 2, respectively). It is argued that in the type 2 case the viral RNA would evolve an ambigrammatic property, whereby the viral genes are free of stop codons in a reverse reading frame (with forward and reverse codons aligned). Recent observations of ribosome profiles of ambigrammatic narnavirus sequences are consistent with our predictions for the type 2 case.