PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Roman Ochsenreiter
AU  - Ivo L. Hofacker
AU  - Michael T. Wolfinger
TI  - Functional RNA Structures in the 3’UTR of Tick-Borne, Insect-Specific and No-Known-Vector Flaviviruses
AID  - 10.1101/565580
DP  - 2019 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 565580
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/03/04/565580.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/03/04/565580.full
AB  - Untranslated regions (UTRs) of flaviviruses contain a large number of RNA structural elements involved in mediating the viral life cycle, including cyclisation, replication, and encapsidation. Here we report on a comparative genomics approach to characterize evolutionarily conserved RNAs in the 3’UTR of tick-borne, insect-specific and no-known-vector flaviviruses in silico. Our data support the wide distribution of previously experimentally characterized exoribonuclease resistant RNAs (xrRNAs) within tick-borne and no-known-vector flaviviruses and provide evidence for the existence of a cascade of duplicated RNA structures within insect-specific flaviviruses. On a broader scale, our findings indicate that viral 3’UTRs represent a flexible scaffold for evolution to come up with novel xrRNAs.