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Self-cleaving viroid and newt RNAs may only be active as dimers - Nature

  • ️Symons, Robert H.
  • ️Thu Jul 21 1988
  • Letter
  • Published: 21 July 1988

Nature volume 334, pages 265–267 (1988)Cite this article

Abstract

Avocado sunblotch viroid (ASBV) is a 247-nucleotide, single-stranded, circular RNA1. It is considered to replicate via a rolling-circle mechanism2–4 in which circular, monomeric plus and minus RNAs act as templates for the synthesis of longer-than-unit-length precursor RNAs. Processing of these RNAs in vivo may occur by a self-cleavage reaction, as indicated by ability of dimeric, linear plus and minus ASBV RNAs to specifically self-cleave in vitro with the excision of a monomeric RNA with 5′-hydroxyl and 2′,3′-cyclic phosphodiester termini4. A similar self-cleavage reaction has also been reported to occur in an RNA transcript containing a dimeric copy of a tandemly repeated, 330-base-pair sequence of the newt genome5. Based on comparisons with self-cleaving plant viral satellite RNAs6,7, hammerhead-shaped active structures, each containing one self-cleavage site, were proposed for the plus and minus ASBV RNAs4 and the newt RNA5, but the stability of these hammerheads has been questioned4,8. Here, more stable active structures that contain two self-cleavage sites are proposed and data supporting these models are presented.

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Author information

Author notes

  1. Anthony C. Forster

    Present address: Department of Biology, Kline Biology Tower, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 06520, USA

  2. Robert H. Symons: To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, 5000, Australia

    Anthony C. Forster, Christopher Davies, Candice C. Sheldon, Alex C. Jeffries & Robert H. Symons

Authors

  1. Anthony C. Forster

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  2. Christopher Davies

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  3. Candice C. Sheldon

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  4. Alex C. Jeffries

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  5. Robert H. Symons

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Forster, A., Davies, C., Sheldon, C. et al. Self-cleaving viroid and newt RNAs may only be active as dimers. Nature 334, 265–267 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1038/334265a0

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  • Received: 06 April 1988

  • Accepted: 14 June 1988

  • Issue Date: 21 July 1988

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/334265a0