Figure 1.

AUF1 p45 increases the flexibility of the WNV 3′SL. (A) Sequence and secondary structure of the full-length WNV 3′SL (left) and a truncated 3′SL (3′SL^trunc) that was used for the thermal denaturation experiments (right). The 3′UAR cyclization sequence is shown in grey. The metastable element within the bottom part of the 3′SL consists of two conserved base pairs and is flanked by two bulges. (B) (left) Thermal denaturation of the 3′SL^trunc RNA. The denaturation was recorded in the temperature range from 30 to 90 °C. (right) First derivative of the trace shown on the left to determine the melting temperature T_M (arrow). (C) First derivatives of thermal denaturation experiments of the 3′SL^trunc RNA in the absence and presence of increasing concentrations of AUF1 p45. Melting temperatures are indicated with arrows.