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. 1985 Oct 11;13(19):6955–6967. doi: 10.1093/nar/13.19.6955

Mechanism of translational coupling between coat protein and replicase genes of RNA bacteriophage MS2.

B Berkhout, J van Duin
PMCID: PMC322015  PMID: 3840590

Abstract

We have analyzed the molecular mechanism that makes translation of the MS2 replicase cistron dependent on the translation of the upstream coat cistron. Deletion mapping on cloned cDNA of the phage shows that the ribosomal binding site of the replicase cistron is masked by a long distance basepairing to an internal coat cistron region. Removal of the internal coat cistron region leads to uncoupled replicase synthesis. Our results confirm the model as originally proposed by Min Jou et al. (1). Activation of the replicase start is sensitive to the frequency of upstream translation, but never reaches the level of uncoupled replicase synthesis.

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Selected References

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