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Updated: Apr 1, 2026

Artificial RNA Polymerase II Elongation Complexes for Dissecting Co-transcriptional RNA Processing Events
Published on: May 13, 2019
[The multifunctional RNA polymerase L protein of non-segmented negative strand RNA viruses catalyzes unique mRNA
1Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.
Abstract:
Non-segmented negative strand RNA viruses belonging to the Mononegavirales order possess RNA-dependent RNA polymerase L proteins within viral particles. The L protein is a multifunctional enzyme catalyzing viral RNA synthesis and processing (i.e., mRNA capping, cap methylation, and polyadenylation). Using vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) as a prototypic model virus, we have shown that the L protein catalyzes the unconventional mRNA capping reaction, which is strikingly different from the eukaryotic reaction. Furthermore, co-transcriptional pre-mRNA capping with the VSV L protein was found to be required for accurate stop?start transcription to synthesize full-length mRNAs in vitro and virus propagation in host cells. This article provides a review of historical and present studies leading to the elucidation of the molecular mechanism of VSV mRNA capping.
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