Non-coding small RNAs are involved in many physiological responses including viral life cycles. Adenovirus-encoding small RNAs, known as virus-associated RNAs (VA RNAs), are transcribed throughout the replication process in the host cells, and their transcript levels depend on the copy numbers of the viral genome. Therefore, VA RNAs are abundant in infected cells after genome replication, i.e. ...

Many aspects of gene regulation are mediated by RNA molecules. However, regulatory RNAs have remained elusive until very recently. At least three types of small regulatory RNAs have been characterized in Drosophila: microRNAs (miRNAs), piwi-interacting RNAs and endogenous siRNAs. A fourth class of regulatory RNAs includes known long non-coding RNAs such as roX1 or bxd. The initial sequencing of...

Nuclear localization of an RNA is affected by cis-acting elements (NLEs) that lead to nuclear import or retention or to blockage of export from the nucleus. To identify such elements, we selected and analyzed transcripts that localized in the nuclei of Xenopus laevis oocytes. The RNAs were isolated from a collection of m7G-capped RNAs in which a combinatorial library (n = 20) of sequences had b...

Sepsis, a syndrome of physiologic, pathologic, and biochemical abnormalities caused by an altered systemic host response to infection, has become the main cause of death among patients admitted to the intensive care units. Recently, genome-wide expression analysis revealed that over 80% of the essential genetic elements were altered in critically ill patients. Notably, non-coding RNAs, includin...

In addition to genomic RNA, HIV-1 particles package cellular and spliced viral RNAs. In order to determine the encapsidation mechanisms of these RNAs, we determined the packaging efficiencies and specificities of genomic RNA, singly and fully spliced HIV mRNAs and different host RNAs species: 7SL RNA, U6 snRNA and GAPDH mRNA using RT-QPCR. Except GAPDH mRNA, all RNAs are selectively encapsidate...