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closeA lesson from EBV
Posted by forsdyke on 11 Dec 2008 at 23:05 GMT
Yes, “the functionality of any transcript at the RNA level should not be discounted.” The glycine-alanine repeat region in the EBNA1 protein of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is an example. The preferential usage of purine-rich codons in stark contrast to other EBV genes implied a selective pressure acting at the mRNA level [1]. Recently, activities attributed to the repeat were found to be changed when alternative synonymous codons (that did not change the encoded amino acid) were employed [2]. This matter is discussed in detail elsewhere [3].
1. Cristillo AD, Mortimer JR, Barrette IH, Lillicrap TP, Forsdyke DR (2001) Double-stranded RNA as a not-self alarm signal: to evade, most viruses purine-load their RNAs, but some (HTLV-1, Epstein-Barr) pyrimidine-load. J Theor Biol 208:475-491.
2. Tellam J, Smith C, Rist M, Webb N, Cooper L, Vuocolo T, Connolly G, Tscharke DC, Devoy MP, Khanna R (2008) Regulation of protein translation through mRNA structure influences MHC class 1 loading and T cell recognition. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105:9319-9324.
3. Forsdyke DR (2006) Evolutionary Bioinformatics. Springer, New York.
RE: A lesson from EBV
JohnMattick replied to forsdyke on 12 Dec 2008 at 03:30 GMT
Dear Dr Forsdyke
Many thanks for pointing out this nice example. I was not aware of it previously but shall keep it in mind for the future.
Kind regards
John Mattick