Interferon gamma 5' UTR regulatory element
Encyclopedia
Interferon gamma 5' UTR regulatory elements are a family of regulatory RNA
RNA
Ribonucleic acid , or RNA, is one of the three major macromolecules that are essential for all known forms of life....

s. This family represents a pseudoknot
Pseudoknot
A pseudoknot is a nucleic acid secondary structure containing at least two stem-loop structures in which half of one stem is intercalated between the two halves of another stem. The pseudoknot was first recognized in the turnip yellow mosaic virus in 1982...

 containing stem-loop structure found in the 5' UTR of interferon-gamma
Interferon-gamma
Interferon-gamma is a dimerized soluble cytokine that is the only member of the type II class of interferons. This interferon was originally called macrophage-activating factor, a term now used to describe a larger family of proteins to which IFN-γ belongs...

 mRNA. This structure is thought to be involved in translational regulation and the pseudoknot has been found to activate protein kinase R
Protein kinase R
Protein kinase RNA-activated also known as protein kinase R , interferon-induced, double-stranded RNA-activated protein kinase, or eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2-alpha kinase 2 is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the EIF2AK2 gene.PKR protects against viral...

(PKR) which is known to be a translational inhibitor. Mutations in the pseudoknot structure have been found to reduce PKR activation and increase the translation of interferon-gamma.
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