RNA Packaging 2.0

Dear Colleagues,

The importance of RNA viruses in global health is manifested by the pandemics they have caused in the past, and by the COVID-19 pandemic they are causing now. Their genetic diversity underlies their zoonotic potential, and makes effective vaccines and drugs a constant challenge. How RNA genomes are packaged into newly assembled virus particles remains one of the less understood aspects of RNA viruses, yet offers the potential for a shared process that could be of immense value as a therapeutic target. It is central to the virus life cycle, yet is highly challenging, as a single genome or set of genomic segments must be packaged into the confined space of the virus capsid when all other nucleic acid is excluded. In some viruses, a binding site in the viral capsid protein recognizes a specific sequence of the genome. For more complex viruses however, this simple model breaks down as many different binding sites have to be invoked, for example for multi-segmented genomes, in order to ensure one copy of each of the multiple segments is incorporated. Alternate models and supporting data for these examples are urgently needed. An emerging concept is that RNA–RNA interactions via complementarities between the segments form a complex that is packaged, rather than each RNA segment individually. Although this critical step of the virus life cycle is becoming clearer, the dynamic nature of the RNA–RNA and RNA–protein interactions required and how they are regulated remains a cutting edge field of research. How, where, and when aspects of the targeting of viral RNAs to their site of assembly remain intriguing questions.

Addressing this topic is the goal of this Special Issue of Viruses. It will serve to highlight advances in our understanding of the current and in-progress packaging mechanisms with a stimulating mix of review and original research articles that stand out from the crowd and ensure prolific citation for many years to come.

Dr. Marylène Mougel
Prof. Dr. Polly Roy
Prof. Dr. Michael Summers
Guest Editors

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• viral RNA
• capsid
• RNA–protein interaction
• RNA–RNA interaction
• RNA folding
• RNA trafficking
• nuclear export
• RNA packaging
• virus assembly
• inhibition