Figure 1.

The HCV genome and reporter RNAs. (A) The HCV RNA genome is shown with the 5′- and 3′-UTRs flanking the open reading frame (ORF) for the polyprotein, which, after processing, yields the virus structural proteins and the non-structural (NS-) replication proteins. In the 5′-UTR, the stem-loops II through IV plus a few coding nucleotides form the IRES. The two microRNA-122 target sequences between stem-loops I and II are shown as boxes. (B) The monocistronic HCV reporter RNA² contains the HCV 5′-UTR plus partial coding core sequences, followed by the firefly luciferase (Fluc) gene and the HCV 3′-UTR. (C) The capped Renilla luciferase (Rluc) reporter RNA with a poly(A)-tail of about 200 A residues.