Department of Microbiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Harvard Program in Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Division of Medical Sciences, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Department of Microbiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Curr Opin Struct Biol. 2024 Oct;88:102912. doi: 10.1016/j.sbi.2024.102912. Epub 2024 Aug 21.
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, one productive area of research has focused on the intricate two- and three-dimensional structures taken on by SARS-CoV-2's RNA genome. These structures control essential viral processes, making them tempting targets for therapeutic intervention. This review focuses on two such structured regions, the frameshift stimulation element (FSE), which controls the translation of viral protein, and the 3' untranslated region (3' UTR), which is thought to regulate genome replication. For the FSE, we discuss its canonical pseudoknot's threaded and unthreaded topologies, as well as the diversity of competing two-dimensional structures formed by local and long-distance base pairing. For the 3' UTR, we review the evidence both for and against the formation of its replication-enabling pseudoknot.
自 COVID-19 大流行以来，一个富有成效的研究领域集中在 SARS-CoV-2 的 RNA 基因组所呈现的复杂的二维和三维结构上。这些结构控制着重要的病毒过程，使其成为治疗干预的诱人目标。本综述集中讨论了两个这样的结构区域，即框架移位刺激元件（FSE），它控制病毒蛋白的翻译，以及 3'非翻译区（3'UTR），它被认为调节基因组复制。对于 FSE，我们讨论了其规范假结的贯穿和未贯穿拓扑结构，以及由局部和长距离碱基配对形成的各种竞争二维结构。对于 3'UTR，我们综述了支持和反对其复制所需假结形成的证据。
