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. 1994 Feb;68(2):1245–1249. doi: 10.1128/jvi.68.2.1245-1249.1994

Characterization of the polyadenylation signal of influenza virus RNA.

X Li 1, P Palese 1
PMCID: PMC236570  PMID: 7507179

Abstract

It has been shown that a stretch of uridines (U's) near the 5' end of the virion RNA of influenza A virus is the polyadenylation site for viral mRNA synthesis. In addition, the RNA duplex made up the 3' and 5' terminal sequences adjacent to the U stretch is also involved in polyadenylation. We have further characterized the polyadenylation signal of influenza virus RNA with a ribonucleoprotein transfection system. We found that the optimal length of the U stretch is 5 to 7 uridine residues. We also showed that the upstream sequence at the 5' end is not involved in polyadenylation and that the optimal distance between the 5' end and the U stretch is 16 nucleotides. The combination of these features defines the polyadenylation site and differentiates this signal from other U stretches scattered throughout the genomes of influenza viruses.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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