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Publication Abstract from PubMed

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.

Structure of the dimer initiation complex of HIV-1 genomic RNA.,Mujeeb A, Clever JL, Billeci TM, James TL, Parslow TG Nat Struct Biol. 1998 Jun;5(6):432-6. PMID:9628479^[1]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.