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arXiv · 2102.00316

Polysomally Protected Viruses

Michael Wilkinson·David Yllanes·Greg Huber
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Abstract

It is conceivable that an RNA virus could use a polysome, that is, a string of ribosomes covering the RNA strand, to protect the genetic material from degradation inside a host cell. This paper discusses how such a virus might operate, and how its presence might be detected by ribosome profiling. There are two possible forms for such a polysomally protected virus, depending upon whether just the forward strand or both the forward and complementary strands can be encased by ribosomes (these will be termed type 1 and type 2, respectively). It is argued that in the type 2 case the viral RNA would evolve an ambigrammatic property, whereby the viral genes are free of stop codons in a reverse reading frame (with forward and reverse codons aligned). Recent observations of ribosome profiles of ambigrammatic narnavirus sequences are consistent with our predictions for the type 2 case.

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Michael Wilkinson, David Yllanes, Greg Huber. 2021-01-30. Polysomally Protected Viruses. https://doi.org/10.1088/1478-3975/abf5b5

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