ALMOST THE ENTIRE 5' NON-TRANSLATED REGION OF HEPATITIS-C VIRUS IS REQUIRED FOR CAP-INDEPENDENT TRANSLATION

To investigate which hairpin structures within the 5' untranslated reg ion of hepatitis C virus (HCV) are necessary for cap-independent trans lation, mutants were constructed that lack one or more hairpin structu res, Here we demonstrate, by constructing precisely defined hairpin de letion mutants, that with the exception of the most 5' located hairpin structure, which on deletion shows an increase on translation, each o f the predicted hairpins is found to be essential for cap-independent translation, In addition, we demonstrate that HCV 5'UTR driven transla tion is stimulated by poliovirus 2A(pro) co-expression.