Mechanism of enhanced mechanical stability of a minimal RNA kissing complex elucidated by nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations

摘要

To form an infectious virion, retroviruses require that two identical copies of their RNA genomes be bound together in a prescribed manner. This peculiar behavior helps protect their genomes from damage and facilitates high rates of recombination; it may also serve to specify the inclusion of only viral RNA in newly formed viral capsids while preventing the incorporation of host mRNA (1, 2). Viral genome dimerization is initiated by the formation of a "kissing-loop" complex consisting of two lasso-like hairpins joined by intermolecular Watson-Crick base pairing.