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An exotic mechanism for replication of non-segmented negative strand (NNS) RNA viruses.
A model for transcription of NNS RNA viruses, which include Ebola, measles and VSV, is presented by Tang et al. The yellow strand represents the RNA genome fully encapsidated with proteins. The orange, ball-shaped objects are polymerases that transcribe the genome. Transcription initiates at the end of the genome as shown by polymerases on the left. The other polymerases (shown on the right) are attached to the template but slide randomly until they collide with the transcribing polymerases. These collisions kick sliding polymerases loose (top center) allowing them to diffuse to the end of the genome and start transcription.
Image Credit: Dave Meikle
