Workshop
Directional translocation resistance of entangled viral RNAs
- Cristian Micheletti
Abstract
RNAs from flaviviruses can survive in host cells because of their unique response to the unfolding action of different enzymes. They can be unwound by replicases and yet can resist degradation by exonucleases. The host cellular machinery is thus hijacked to make copies of these RNAs and, at the same time, prevented from destroying them effectively. How the same stretch of viral RNA can encode such diverse responses to enzymatic actions is an open question. Here, we use atomistic models and translocation simulations to shed light on the microscopic origin of this sophisticated response, showing its dependence on the entangled viral RNA structure.