Prediction of RNA secondary structures in SARS-CoV-2 and comparison with contemporary predictions

Abstract

AO_SCPLOWBSTRACTC_SCPLOWSARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of covid-19, is known to exhibit secondary structure in its 5 and 3 untranslated regions, along with the frameshifting stimulatory element situated between ORF1a and 1b. To identify further regions containing conserved structure, multiple sequence alignment with related coronaviruses was used as a starting point from which to apply a modified computational pipeline developed to identify non-coding RNA elements in vertebrate eukaryotes. Three different RNA structural prediction approaches were employed in this modified pipeline. Forty genomic regions deemed likely to harbour structure were identified, ten of which exhibited three-way consensus substructure predictions amongst our predictive utilities. Intracomparison of the pipelines predictive utilities, along with intercomparison with three previously published SARS-CoV-2 structural datasets, were performed. Limited agreement as to precise structure was observed, although different approaches appear to agree upon regions likely to contain structure in the viral genome.