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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2019 Sep 18.
Published in final edited form as: Ann Integr Mol Med. 2019;1(1):1002.

Figure 3: RNA-dependent mammalian mRNA amplification as a Two-Tier process.

Figure 3:

Top panel: conventional, genome-originated mRNA molecule. Bottom panel: Tier One, the chimeric pathway merging with Tier Two, the iPCR process. Boxed line – sense strand RNA. Single line – antisense strand RNA. “AUG” – functional translation initiation codon (could be other than “AUG”). Yellow circle – helicase/modifying activity complex. Blue lines (both single and boxed) – RNA strand modified and separated from its complement by a helicase complex. Red arrowhead – position of cleavage of the chimeric intermediate. Step 1: synthesis of antisense strand; step 2: strand separation; step 3: folding of antisense strand into self-priming configuration; step 4: extension of self-primed antisense RNA into sense RNA; step 5: strand separation; step 6: cleavage of the chimeric intermediate coupled with 3’polyadenylation of the antisense RNA; step 7: end-products of amplification; step 8: RdRp-mediated synthesis of the sense strand initiated at the 3’poly (A) of antisense RNA; step 9: strand separation. Note that each strand constitutes an iPCR template; step 10: iPCR products. The antisense can be further amplified whereas the sense strand can be used either for amplification or for translation. Note that the iPCR-amplified sense strand retains the intact coding content of conventional mRNA. For details see main text.