How the influenza virus hijacks a cell’s protein production
May 5, 2008 | Source: KurzweilAI
European Molecular Biology Laboratory biologists and their colleagues used x-ray crystallography to see exactly how the influenza virus steals a genetic sequence from an RNA molecule, giving the virus access to the cell’s protein production machinery.
The virus binds to the host cell’s messenger RNA (mRNA), the molecules that carry the instructions for protein production. The virus then cuts off the RNA’s “cap,” a short sequence at the start of all mRNAs, and attaches it to the virus’s own mRNA. The capped viral mRNA can then direct the cell to make viral proteins.