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Updated: Oct 2, 2025

Production of a SARS-CoV-2 Virus-Like-Particle System to Investigate Viral Life Cycles In Vitro
Published on: June 6, 2025
Secondary Structure of Subgenomic RNA M of SARS-CoV-2
Marta Soszynska-Jozwiak1, Agnieszka Ruszkowska1, Ryszard Kierzek1
1Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, 61-704 Poznan, Poland.
Abstract:
SARS-CoV-2 belongs to the Coronavirinae family. Like other coronaviruses, SARS-CoV-2 is enveloped and possesses a positive-sense, single-stranded RNA genome of ~30 kb. Genomic RNA is used as the template for replication and transcription. During these processes, positive-sense genomic RNA (gRNA) and subgenomic RNAs (sgRNAs) are created. Several studies presented the importance of the genomic RNA secondary structure in SARS-CoV-2 replication. However, the structure of sgRNAs has remained largely unsolved so far. In this study, we probed the sgRNA M model of SARS-CoV-2 in vitro. The presented model molecule includes 5'UTR and a coding sequence of gene M. This is the first experimentally informed secondary structure model of sgRNA M, which presents features likely to be important in sgRNA M function. The knowledge of sgRNA M structure provides insights to better understand virus biology and could be used for designing new therapeutics.
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