COMPUTER-ASSISTED PREDICTIONS OF THE SECONDARY STRUCTURE IN THE PLANT-VIRUS SINGLE-STRANDED-DNA GENOME

Coconut foliar decay virus (CFDV) contains the single-stranded circula r DNA molecules of 1291 nucleotides which were found to replicate auto nomously in the cells of the diseased palms. The special features of t he CFDV DNA sequence, including putative secondary structure and the d istribution of the inverted repeat motifs, are investigated with compu ter-assisted prediction methods. It is evident that the structural pri nciple of the branched series of long and short double helixes intersp ersed by short non-helical regions is existed for CFDV virion DNA. The total degree of base pairing is near 62%. We have also predicted the presence of several sequence elements formed by inverted repeat motifs which are potentially capable of binding the eukaryotic transcription al regulatory factors.