VA RNA

The VA (viral associated) RNA is a non-coding RNA found in adenovirus. It plays a role in regulating translation. There are two copies of this RNA called VAI or VA RNAI and VAII or VA RNAII. Svensson et al. showed that VAI stimulates the translation of both early and late viral genes including E3 and hexon. They also found that VAII did not stimulate translation. Strijker et al. found that VAI increased the stability of additionally ribosome bound RNAs using a transient transfection assay.

It has recently been shown that VAI RNA is processed in the cell to create 22 nucleotide that can act as siRNA or miRNA.

Structure
VA RNA is composed of two stem-loops separated by a central region essential for function.