Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 1994 Jun 25;22(12):2304-10.
doi: 10.1093/nar/22.12.2304.

Identification and analysis of the pseudoknot-containing gag-pro ribosomal frameshift signal of simian retrovirus-1

E ten Dam  1 , I Brierley, S Inglis, C Pleij
Affiliations
Free PMC article

Identification and analysis of the pseudoknot-containing gag-pro ribosomal frameshift signal of simian retrovirus-1

E ten Dam et al. Nucleic Acids Res. .
Free PMC article

Abstract

The pro and pol genes of simian retrovirus-1 (SRV-1) are expressed as parts of a fusion protein generated by -1 ribosomal frameshifting. To investigate the requirements for frameshifting at the gag-pro overlap, we have inserted a stretch of 58 nucleotides containing the proposed frameshift signal into a plasmid that allows monitoring of translation in all three reading frames. In vitro translation of mRNAs derived from this plasmid indicated that the 58 nucleotides from the SRV-1 gag-pro overlap were sufficient to induce an efficient -1 shift in a heterologous context. Mutational analysis demonstrated that the slip site is formed at the heptanucleotide G GGA AAC. The frameshift efficiency of the wild type sequence in rabbit reticulocyte lysate was 23%. A second component of the frameshift signal is formed by a pseudoknot seven bases downstream of the slip site. The presence of this pseudoknot was confirmed by mutational analysis, employing complementary and compensatory base changes, and by probing the structure of short RNA transcripts containing the frameshift signal. Adding increasing amounts of an SRV-1 pseudoknot containing RNA transcript to a translation reaction programmed with an SRV-1 frameshift reporter mRNA had no effect on the frameshift efficiency, arguing against the role of a specific pseudoknot-recognising factor in the frameshifting process.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1993 Nov 15;90(22):10539-43 - PubMed
    1. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1993 Sep 15;90(18):8595-9 - PubMed
    1. Virology. 1981 Oct 30;114(2):463-73 - PubMed
    1. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Jan;82(2):488-92 - PubMed
    1. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Feb;82(3):677-81 - PubMed

Publication types