Title: Unusual nucleotide content of Rubella virus genome as a consequence of biased RNA-editing: comparison with Alphaviruses

Authors: Vladislav Victorovich Khrustalev, Eugene Victorovich Barkovsky

Addresses: Department of General Chemistry, Belarussian State Medical University, 83 Dzerzinskogo Prospect, Minsk 220000, Belarus. ' Department of General Chemistry, Belarussian State Medical University, 83 Dzerzinskogo Prospect, Minsk 220000, Belarus

Abstract: The usage of cytosine in third codon positions of 22 complete Rubella virus genomes (52.4%) is significantly higher than the usage of guanine (28.9%), adenine (6.9%) and uracil (11.8%). The percentage of U ↔ C transitions (55%) between 22 Rubella virus genomes is two times higher than the percentage of A ↔ G transitions (23%). Predicted microRNA from ORF1 of Rubella virus may target human APOBEC1 mRNA, blocking APOBEC1-editing of viral RNA-minus and RNA-plus strands (preventing G → A and C → U transitions, respectively), while their ADAR-editing (causing U → C and A → G transitions, respectively) occurs frequently.

Keywords: rubella virus genomes; alphavirus; togaviridae; ADAR; APOBEC1; mutational pressure; microRNA; GC-content; inosine; 8-oxo-G; bioinformatics; RNA editing; nucleotide content; nucleotide content.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBRA.2011.039171

International Journal of Bioinformatics Research and Applications, 2011 Vol.7 No.1, pp.82 - 100

Published online: 24 Jan 2015 *

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