EXCERPT

Until now, scientists had not noticed the code, which had been hidden in plain sight in the sequence of the ribonucleic acid (RNA) that makes up this type of viral genome.

But a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) Early Edition by a group from the University of Leeds and University of York unlocks its meaning and demonstrates that jamming the code can disrupt virus assembly. Stopping a virus assembling can stop it functioning and therefore prevent disease.

SOURCE

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150204075224.htm

ARTICLE

Nikesh Patel, Eric C. Dykeman, Robert H. A. Coutts, George P. Lomonossoff, David J. Rowlands, Simon E. V. Phillips, Neil Ranson, Reidun Twarock, Roman Tuma, Peter G. Stockley. Revealing the density of encoded functions in a viral RNA. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2015; 201420812 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1420812112