Open AccessFormation of a Functional Hepatitis B Virus Replication Initiation Complex Involves a Major Structural Alteration in the RNA Template
Author(s) -
Jürgen Beck,
Michael Nassal
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
molecular and cellular biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.14
H-Index - 327
eISSN - 1067-8824
pISSN - 0270-7306
DOI - 10.1128/mcb.18.11.6265
Subject(s) - biology , duck hepatitis b virus , rna , reverse transcriptase , primer (cosmetics) , microbiology and biotechnology , transcription (linguistics) , rna dependent rna polymerase , viral replication , dna , hepatitis b virus , virology , virus , genetics , hepadnaviridae , gene , linguistics , chemistry , philosophy , organic chemistry
The DNA genome of a hepatitis B virus is generated by reverse transcription of the RNA pregenome. Replication initiation does not involve a nucleic acid primer; instead, the hepadnavirus P protein binds to the structured RNA encapsidation signal ɛ, from which it copies a short DNA primer that becomes covalently linked to the enzyme. Using in vitro-translated duck hepatitis B virus (DHBV) P protein, we probed the secondary structure of the protein-bound DHBV ɛ RNA (Dɛ) and observed a marked conformational change compared to free Dɛ RNA. Several initiation-competent mutant RNAs with a different free-state structure were similarly altered, whereas a binding-competent but initiation-deficient variant was not, indicating the importance of the rearrangement for replication initiation and suggesting a mechanistic coupling to encapsidation.