Viral mRNA and RNA

[Nite]

Heya all,

Are there any differences between viral RNA and mRNA?

If there are, what are they?

Thankx and rgds...

[victor]

Virus is my favorite...
the difference is viral RNA (I'll talk about RNA virus first) is they can be in two forms, which are:
(+)sense RNA (means that the RNA can also as mRNA, translating protein).
(-)sense RNA (means that the RNA cannot as mRNA).

we can see that, from the structure, they are the same, but from the function they are different..

I think this post is more proper in Microbiology topic..hey boss, would you mind to move it??

[Nite]

any other differences except that?

for example: any differences in terms of wad's at the 3' and 5' end, or in the sequence??

[victor]

ahh, so you want that thing...well, as far as I know..some viruses have 3' tip that unpolyadenilated or uncapped viral RNA..if you wanna the examples..wait, I'll look for the contestants first..

[Nite]

If i din recall wrongly, my lecturer mention about LTR (Light Tandem Repeat) region at the 5' end of mRNA for some viruses...

and one sequence of RNA or DNA can generate many differents mRNA depending on the open reading frame on the RNA or DNA, am I rite?

[victor]

Yup, because there're many ORF in one strands of DNA or RNA.