Hepatitis delta virus ribozyme

Hepatitis delta virus ribozyme
Predicted secondary structure and sequence conservation of HDV ribozyme
Identifiers
SymbolHDV_ribozyme
RfamRF00094
Other data
RNA typeGene; ribozyme
Domain(s)Viruses
SOSO:0000374
PDB structuresPDBe
A representation of the 3D structure of the Hepatitis delta virus ribozyme.[1]

The hepatitis delta virus (HDV) ribozyme is a non-coding RNA found in the hepatitis delta virus that is necessary for viral replication. Hepatitis delta virus is the only known human virus that utilizes ribozyme activity to infect its host.[1] The ribozyme acts to process the RNA transcripts to unit lengths in a self-cleavage reaction during replication of the hepatitis delta virus, which is thought to propagate by a double rolling circle mechanism.[2][3] The ribozyme is active in vivo in the absence of any protein factors and was the fastest known naturally occurring self-cleaving RNA at the time of its discovery.[4]

The crystal structure of this ribozyme has been solved using X-ray crystallography and shows five helical segments connected by a double pseudoknot.[1]

In addition to the sense (genomic version), all HDV viruses also have an antigenomic version of the HDV ribozyme.[5] This version is not the exact complementary sequence but adopts the same structure as the sense (genomic) strand. The only "significant" differences between the two are a small bulge in P4 stem and a shorter J4/2 junction. Both the genomic and antigenomic ribozymes are necessary for replication.[2]

  1. ^ a b c Ferré-D'Amaré AR, Zhou K, Doudna JA (October 1998). "Crystal structure of a hepatitis delta virus ribozyme". Nature. 395 (6702): 567–574. Bibcode:1998Natur.395..567F. doi:10.1038/26912. PMID 9783582. S2CID 4359811.
  2. ^ a b Modahl LE, Lai MM (July 1998). "Transcription of hepatitis delta antigen mRNA continues throughout hepatitis delta virus (HDV) replication: a new model of HDV RNA transcription and replication". Journal of Virology. 72 (7): 5449–5456. doi:10.1128/JVI.72.7.5449-5456.1998. PMC 110180. PMID 9621000.
  3. ^ Macnaughton TB, Shi ST, Modahl LE, Lai MM (April 2002). "Rolling circle replication of hepatitis delta virus RNA is carried out by two different cellular RNA polymerases". Journal of Virology. 76 (8): 3920–3927. doi:10.1128/JVI.76.8.3920-3927.2002. PMC 136092. PMID 11907231.
  4. ^ Kuo MY, Sharmeen L, Dinter-Gottlieb G, Taylor J (December 1988). "Characterization of self-cleaving RNA sequences on the genome and antigenome of human hepatitis delta virus". Journal of Virology. 62 (12): 4439–4444. doi:10.1128/JVI.62.12.4439-4444.1988. PMC 253552. PMID 3184270.
  5. ^ Chen PJ, Kalpana G, Goldberg J, Mason W, Werner B, Gerin J, Taylor J (November 1986). "Structure and replication of the genome of the hepatitis delta virus". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 83 (22): 8774–8778. Bibcode:1986PNAS...83.8774C. doi:10.1073/pnas.83.22.8774. PMC 387014. PMID 2430299.