Bacteriophage pRNA

Bacteriophage pRNA is a ncRNA element. During replication of linear dsDNA viruses, the viral genome is packaged into the pre-formed viral procapsid. The packaging of DNA into the procapsid requires a molecular motor, which uses ATP as energy to accomplish the energetically unfavorable motion. In some bacteriophage, an RNA (pRNA) molecule is a vital component of this motor.^[1] Structural analyses of the packaging motor have demonstrated that the pRNA molecule has fivefold symmetry when attached to the prohead.^[2][3][4] The pRNA is thought to be bound by the capsid connector protein.^[4] Only the first 120 bases of the pRNA are essential for packing the viral DNA.^[5][6] The pRNA is proposed to be composed of two domains, one corresponding to the first 120 bases and the second to the remaining 50 bases.^[6] Nuclear cleavage occurs in the single strand region linking these two domains.^[6]

Bacteriophage pRNA
Predicted secondary structure and sequence conservation of Phage_pRNA
Identifiers
Symbol	Phage_pRNA
Rfam	RF00044
Other data
RNA type	Gene
Domain(s)	Viruses
SO	SO:0000655
PDB structures	PDBe