SARS冠状病毒基因组复制酶起始结合位点的预测

Prediction of replicase initial binding sites in the genome of SARS coronavirus

严重急性呼吸综合征(Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome,SARS)传染性强,死亡率高, 给全世界约30个国家造成了巨大损失.其病原体为SARS冠状病毒(Severe acute Respiratory Syndrome Associated Coronavirus,SARS—CoV),是冠状病毒(Coronavirus)的新变异种.作者以“最大信息量”理论和方法为基础,使用结合位点搜寻软件等生物信息学方法,对冠状病毒基因组的3’非翻译区(Untranslated Regions,UTRs)进行分析,预测出了2株SARS—CoV(来自北京的SARSBJ01和浙江的SARSZJ01)以及其他38株冠状病毒株的复制酶起始结合位点(Rep- licase initial binding sites,RIBS).在该预测结果中,不难发现,这些RIBS的序列与前人的研究成果有很大的相似之处,与公认的冠状病毒的顺式作用元件极为相似的基序也存在其中,而且其预测的二级结构与鼠肝炎病毒MHV基因组的某些蛋白结合位点类似.因此,预测的RIBS 在病毒的复制中可能起重要作用.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) , a highly infectious disease, leads to a high death rate and a large loss. Its pathogeny, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome associated coronavirus (SARS - CoV) , is a new variable strain of coronavir-us. In this paper, we studied the 3'untranslated regions (3'UTRs) by using the Binding Sites Search program and other bioinfor-matic methods based on the theory of the maximal information content. Resultingly, we got the replicase initial binding sites ( RIBS) of two strains of SARS - CoV and other thirty-eight strains of coronaviruses. It was found that the sequences of the RIBS are similar with those in the previous reports. The motifs consistent with cis-active element proverbially were present in our RIBS. The predicted second structures of two strains of SARS - CoV RIBS was analogous to that of binding sites of Murine hepatitis virus (MHV) genome in other studies. Therefore, it is possible that the predicted RIBS play very important role in the replication of SARS - CoV.