Figure 3.

Activity of core peptides in RNA dimerization. (A) The bar chart illustrates the charge distribution of amino acids in the core protein, as calculated by the charge function of the EMBOSS package, using default parameters and a sliding window of five amino acids. Synthetic peptides 2BD and 3BD correspond to two or three basic amino acid clusters of the core protein, respectively. (B) Dimerization of FL(+) RNAs induced by core peptides 2BD and 3BD. ³²P-labelled RNA molecules were incubated with increasing amounts of the corresponding polypeptides (at polypeptide to nucleotide molar ratios 1:80, 1:40, 1:20 and 1:10). Following incubation, polypeptides were removed and RNA were analysed by native gel electrophoresis and autoradiography. FL(D) corresponds to dimeric RNA, while FL(M) to the monomeric form.