Ribosomal frameshifting and transcriptional slippage: From genetic steganography and cryptography to adventitious use

Atkins, John F.; Loughran, Gary; Bhatt, Pramod R.; Firth, Andrew E.; Baranov, Pavel V.

Oligonucleotide targeting to the HIV frameshift 3 stimulatory structure has also been investigated (689) . However, the main motivation of synthetic oligonucleotide work has been for the mechanistic insights it can provide and as part of an exploration of different potential ways of being able to generate frameshifting that could partially compensate for a nearby genetic disease causing frameshift mutation. Modified synthetic oligonucleotides complementary to a sequence 3 of known or potential frameshift sites lacking 3 intra-mRNA structural frameshift stimulators were tested for their potential to stimulate frameshifting (98, (690) (691) (692) (693) . They showed unexpected spacing features. It is unclear if these findings presage natural trans-acting mRNAs (the miRNAs that influence CCR5 frameshifting bind to 3 structural stimulators (27) rather than to unfolded mRNA). However, no practical reagents of this type for causing compensatory frameshifting for frameshift mutation mediated human genetic disease have yet been developed. Effects of synthetic oligonucleotide binding 5 of shift sites has also been studied (505) .