Conserved Sequences in the 5′ and 3′ Untranslated Regions of Jingmenvirus Group Representatives
Alexander G. Litov,
Egor V. Okhezin,
Ivan S. Kholodilov,
Oxana A. Belova,
Galina G. Karganova
Affiliations
Alexander G. Litov
Laboratory of Biology of Arboviruses, FSASI “Chumakov Federal Scientific Center for Research and Development of Immune-and-Biological Products of RAS” (Institute of Poliomyelitis), 108819 Moscow, Russia
Egor V. Okhezin
Laboratory of Biology of Arboviruses, FSASI “Chumakov Federal Scientific Center for Research and Development of Immune-and-Biological Products of RAS” (Institute of Poliomyelitis), 108819 Moscow, Russia
Ivan S. Kholodilov
Laboratory of Biology of Arboviruses, FSASI “Chumakov Federal Scientific Center for Research and Development of Immune-and-Biological Products of RAS” (Institute of Poliomyelitis), 108819 Moscow, Russia
Oxana A. Belova
Laboratory of Biology of Arboviruses, FSASI “Chumakov Federal Scientific Center for Research and Development of Immune-and-Biological Products of RAS” (Institute of Poliomyelitis), 108819 Moscow, Russia
Galina G. Karganova
Laboratory of Biology of Arboviruses, FSASI “Chumakov Federal Scientific Center for Research and Development of Immune-and-Biological Products of RAS” (Institute of Poliomyelitis), 108819 Moscow, Russia
The Jingmenvirus group (JVG), with members such as Jingmen tick virus (JMTV), Alongshan virus (ALSV), Yanggou tick virus (YGTV), and Takachi virus (TAKV), is drawing attention due to evidence of it causing disease in humans and its unique genome architecture. In the current work, complete untranslated regions (UTRs) of four strains of ALSV and eight strains of YGTV were obtained. An analysis of these sequences, as well as JVG sequences from GenBank, uncovered several regions within viral UTRs that were highly conserved for all the segments and viruses. Bioinformatics predictions suggested that the UTRs of all the segments of YGTV, ALSV, and JMTV could form similar RNA structures. The most notable feature of these structures was a stable stem-loop with one (5′ UTR) or two (3′ UTR) AAGU tetraloops on the end of a hairpin.
