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How viral RNAs escape a host mechanism that controls translation

A long-standing question has been how viral RNAs that use genetic codes different from those used in human cells can still drive efficient viral protein production during infection. It emerges that the sequences of 5′ untranslated regions in viral RNAs drive codon-usage-independent translation by blocking mRNA circularization, enabling viruses to evade the host’s codon-usage control of translation.

This is a summary of: Liu. H. et al. Viral RNA blocks circularization to evade host codon usage control. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09809-y (2025).

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-04001-8

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