scholarly journals Insights from structural studies of the Cardiovirus 2A protein

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neva Caliskan ◽  
Chris H. Hill

Cardioviruses are single-stranded RNA viruses of the family Picornaviridae. In addition to being the first example of internal ribosome entry site utilization, cardioviruses also employ a series of alternative translation strategies, such as Stop-Go translation and programmed ribosome frameshifting. Here, we focus on cardiovirus 2A protein, which is not only a primary virulence factor, but also exerts crucial regulatory functions during translation, including activation of viral ribosome frameshifting and inhibition of host cap-dependent translation. Only recently, biochemical and structural studies have allowed us to close the gaps in our knowledge of how cardiovirus 2A is able to act in diverse translation-related processes as a novel RNA-binding protein. This review will summarize these findings, which ultimately may lead to the discovery of other RNA-mediated gene expression strategies across a broad range of RNA viruses.

2006 ◽  
Vol 80 (14) ◽  
pp. 6936-6942 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melinda K. Merrill ◽  
Matthias Gromeier

ABSTRACT Poliovirus (PV) plus-strand RNA genomes initiate translation in a cap-independent manner via an internal ribosome entry site (IRES) in their 5′ untranslated region. Viral translation is codetermined by cellular IRES trans-acting factors, which can influence viral propagation in a cell-type-specific manner. Engineering of a poliovirus recombinant devoid of neuropathogenic properties but highly lytic in malignant glioma cells was accomplished by exchange of the cognate poliovirus IRES with its counterpart from human rhinovirus type 2 (HRV2), generating PV-RIPO. Neuroblast:glioma heterokaryon analyses revealed that loss of neurovirulence is due to trans-dominant repression of PV-RIPO propagation in neuronal cells. The double-stranded RNA binding protein 76 (DRBP76) was previously identified to bind to the HRV2 IRES in neuronal cells and to inhibit PV-RIPO translation and propagation (M. Merrill, E. Dobrikova, and M. Gromeier, J. Virol. 80:3347-3356, 2006). The results of size exclusion chromatography indicate that DRBP76 heterodimerizes with nuclear factor of activated T cells, 45 kDa (NF45), in neuronal but not in glioma cells. The DRBP76:NF45 heterodimer binds to the HRV2 IRES in neuronal but not in glioma cells. Ribosomal profile analyses show that the heterodimer preferentially associates with the translation apparatus in neuronal cells and arrests translation at the HRV2 IRES, preventing PV-RIPO RNA assembly into polysomes. Results of this study suggest that the DRBP76:NF45 heterodimer selectively blocks HRV2 IRES-driven translation initiation in neuron-derived cells.


2007 ◽  
Vol 27 (13) ◽  
pp. 4685-4697 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergey E. Dmitriev ◽  
Dmitri E. Andreev ◽  
Ilya M. Terenin ◽  
Ivan A. Olovnikov ◽  
Vladimir S. Prassolov ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Retrotransposon L1 is a mobile genetic element of the LINE family that is extremely widespread in the mammalian genome. It encodes a dicistronic mRNA, which is exceptionally rare among eukaryotic cellular mRNAs. The extremely long and GC-rich L1 5′ untranslated region (5′UTR) directs synthesis of numerous copies of RNA-binding protein ORF1p per mRNA. One could suggest that the 5′UTR of L1 mRNA contained a powerful internal ribosome entry site (IRES) element. Using transfection of cultured cells with the polyadenylated monocistronic (L1 5′UTR-Fluc) or bicistronic (Rluc-L1 5′UTR-Fluc) RNA constructs, capped or uncapped, it has been firmly established that the 5′UTR of L1 does not contain an IRES. Uncapping reduces the initiation activity of the L1 5′UTR to that of background. Moreover, the translation is inhibited by upstream AUG codons in the 5′UTR. Nevertheless, this cap-dependent initiation activity of the L1 5′UTR was unexpectedly high and resembles that of the beta-actin 5′UTR (84 nucleotides long). Strikingly, the deletion of up to 80% of the nucleotide sequence of the L1 5′UTR, with most of its stem loops, does not significantly change its translation initiation efficiency. These data can modify current ideas on mechanisms used by 40S ribosomal subunits to cope with complex 5′UTRs and call into question the conception that every long GC-rich 5′UTR working with a high efficiency has to contain an IRES. Our data also demonstrate that the ORF2 translation initiation is not directed by internal initiation, either. It is very inefficient and presumably based on a reinitiation event.


2008 ◽  
Vol 19 (9) ◽  
pp. 3812-3822 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiu-Hung Yeh ◽  
Liang-Yi Hung ◽  
Chin Hsu ◽  
Shu-Yun Le ◽  
Pin-Tse Lee ◽  
...  

Reduction in host-activated protein C levels and resultant microvascular thrombosis highlight the important functional role of protein C anticoagulant system in the pathogenesis of sepsis and septic shock. Thrombomodulin (TM) is a critical factor to activate protein C in mediating the anticoagulation and anti-inflammation effects. However, TM protein content is decreased in inflammation and sepsis, and the mechanism is still not well defined. In this report, we identified that the TM 5′ untranslated region (UTR) bearing the internal ribosome entry site (IRES) element controls TM protein expression. Using RNA probe pulldown assay, HuR was demonstrated to interact with the TM 5′UTR. Overexpression of HuR protein inhibited the activity of TM IRES, whereas on the other hand, reducing the HuR protein level reversed this effect. When cells were treated with IL-1β, the IRES activity was suppressed and accompanied by an increased interaction between HuR and TM 5′UTR. In the animal model of sepsis, we found the TM protein expression level to be decreased while concurrently observing the increased interaction between HuR and TM mRNA in liver tissue. In summary, HuR plays an important role in suppression of TM protein synthesis in IL-1β treatment and sepsis.


Open Biology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 180155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gloria Lozano ◽  
Rosario Francisco-Velilla ◽  
Encarnacion Martinez-Salas

Beyond the general cap-dependent translation initiation, eukaryotic organisms use alternative mechanisms to initiate protein synthesis. Internal ribosome entry site (IRES) elements are cis -acting RNA regions that promote internal initiation of translation using a cap-independent mechanism. However, their lack of primary sequence and secondary RNA structure conservation, as well as the diversity of host factor requirement to recruit the ribosomal subunits, suggest distinct types of IRES elements. In spite of this heterogeneity, conserved motifs preserve sequences impacting on RNA structure and RNA–protein interactions important for IRES-driven translation. This conservation brings the question of whether IRES elements could consist of basic building blocks, which upon evolutionary selection result in functional elements with different properties. Although RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) perform a crucial role in the assembly of ribonucleoprotein complexes, the versatility and plasticity of RNA molecules, together with their high flexibility and dynamism, determines formation of macromolecular complexes in response to different signals. These properties rely on the presence of short RNA motifs, which operate as modular entities, and suggest that decomposition of IRES elements in short modules could help to understand the different mechanisms driven by these regulatory elements. Here we will review evidence suggesting that model IRES elements consist of the combination of short modules, providing sites of interaction for ribosome subunits, eIFs and RBPs, with implications for definition of criteria to identify novel IRES-like elements genome wide.


2005 ◽  
Vol 48 (23) ◽  
pp. 7099-7102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Punit P. Seth ◽  
Alycia Miyaji ◽  
Elizabeth A. Jefferson ◽  
Kristin A. Sannes-Lowery ◽  
Stephen A. Osgood ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-13
Author(s):  
Seyed Jalal Kiani ◽  
Zohreh Yousefi Ghalejoogh ◽  
Katayoun Samimi-Rad

Aim: The RNA recognition code of an RNA-binding protein known as Pumilio/FBF (PUF) protein was reprogrammed in order to provide binding to internal ribosome entry site (IRES) of hepatitis C virus (HCV) genome. Materials & methods: The ability of the modified protein to repress IRES-dependent translation was analyzed by dual-luciferase reporter assay, cell viability assay, cell cytotoxicity assay and anti-HCV assay. Results: The modified protein was able to reduce reporter gene expression (>30%) and HCV viral load (>98%) and reduced HCV-induced cytotoxicity to the level observed in uninfected cells. Conclusion: Our results can set the stage for using modified PUFs for interfering with critical steps such as replication and translation in virus life cycle, especially RNA viruses.


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