Abstract
Retroviral genomes must dimerize to be fully infectious. Dimerization is directed by a unique RNA hairpin structure with a palindrome in its loop: hairpins of two strands first associate transiently through their loops, and then refold to a more stable, linear duplex. The structure of the initial, kissing-loop dimer from HIV-1, solved using 2D NMR, is bent and metastable, its interface being formed not only by standard basepairing between palindromes, but also by a distinctive pattern of interstrand stacking among bases at the stem-loop junctions. This creates mechanical distortions that partially melt both stems, which may facilitate spontaneous refolding of this RNA complex into linear form.
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Mujeeb, A., Clever, J., Billeci, T. et al. Structure of the dimer a initiation complex of HIV-1 genomic RNA. Nat Struct Mol Biol 5, 432–436 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsb0698-432
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nsb0698-432