The Flavivirus genus is divided into four groups: Mosquito-borne flaviviruses, Tick-borne flaviviruses, no-known vector flaviviruses, and Insect specific flaviviruses. Millions of people are affected worldwide every year due to the flaviviral infections. The 5' UTR of the RNA genome plays a critical role in the biology of flaviviruses. To explore any correlation between the topology of the 5' UTR and pathogenesis, a global scale study of the RNA secondary structure of different groups of flaviviruses has been conducted. We found that most of the pathogenic flaviviruses, irrespective of their mode of transmission, tend to form a Y shaped topology in the Stem loop A of the 5' UTR. Some of the current non-pathogenic flaviviruses were also observed to form Y shaped structure. Based on this study, it has been proposed that the flaviviruses having the Y shaped topology in their 5′ UTR regions may have the potential to become pathogenic.

黄病毒属分为四组：蚊媒黄病毒、蜱媒黄病毒、未知载体黄病毒和昆虫特异性黄病毒。由于黄病毒感染，全世界每年有数百万人受到影响。RNA 基因组的 5' UTR 在黄病毒生物学中起关键作用。为了探索 5' UTR 的拓扑结构与发病机制之间的任何相关性，对不同黄病毒组的 RNA 二级结构进行了全球规模的研究。我们发现大多数致病性黄病毒，无论其传播方式如何，都倾向于在 5' UTR 的茎环 A 中形成 Y 形拓扑结构。一些目前的非致病性黄病毒也被观察到形成Y形结构。基于这项研究，