Epstein–Barr virus nuclear-antigen internal ribosomal entry site

The Epstein–Barr virus nuclear-antigen internal ribosome entry site (EBNA IRES) is an internal ribosome entry site (IRES) that is found in an exon in the 5' untranslated region of the Epstein–Barr virus nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1) gene.^[1] The EBNA IRES allows EBNA1 translation to occur under situations where initiation from the 5' cap structure and ribosome scanning is reduced. It is thought that the EBNA IRES is necessary for the regulation of latent-gene expression.^[1]

Epstein–Barr virus nuclear-antigen (EBNA) internal ribosome entry site (IRES)
Predicted secondary structure and sequence conservation of IRES EBNA
Identifiers
Symbol	IRES_EBNA
Rfam	RF00448
Other data
RNA type	Cis-reg; IRES
Domain(s)	Viruses
GO	GO:0043022
SO	SO:0000243
PDB structures	PDBe

The EBNA IRES is located in the U leader exon, which is a portion of the mRNA of the Epstein–Barr virus common to all four EBNA1 transcripts.^[1]

See also

• Epstein–Barr virus stable intronic-sequence RNAs