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Updated: Aug 12, 2025
06:21
An Ecdysone Receptor-based Singular Gene Switch for Deliberate Expression of Transgene with Robustness, Reversibility, and Negligible Leakiness
Published on: May 7, 2018
6.6K
RNA levers and switches controlling viral gene expression.
Matthew F Allan1, Amir Brivanlou2, Silvi Rouskin2
1Department of Microbiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Computational and Systems Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
Trends in Biochemical Sciences
|January 29, 2023
Summary
RNA viruses use clever genetic strategies like overlapping reading frames and RNA structures to maximize protein production from compact genomes. These mechanisms are crucial for viral life cycles and disease.
Area of Science:
- Virology
- Molecular Biology
- Genetics
Background:
- RNA viruses are significant human pathogens with compact genomes.
- They employ strategies to maximize coding capacity, including overlapping reading frames.
Purpose of the Study:
- To highlight recent findings on unconventional RNA virus gene expression.
- To explore the role of RNA structures in viral life cycles.
Main Methods:
- Review of recent scientific literature.
- Analysis of gene expression mechanisms in RNA viruses.
- Focus on RNA 3D structure functions.
Main Results:
- RNA viruses utilize alternative splicing and ribosomal frameshifting to produce multiple proteins.
- RNA genome 3D structures play key roles in mimicking cellular RNAs and hijacking host proteins.
- Novel regulatory mechanisms controlling viral processes have been discovered.
Conclusions:
- RNA structures are critical for efficient viral gene expression and life cycle regulation.
- Understanding these unconventional mechanisms offers insights into viral pathogenesis.
- Further research into RNA structures can reveal new antiviral targets.
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