The dfrA-dnaX RNA motif is a conserved RNA structure that was discovered by bioinformatics.[1] dfrA-dnaX motifs are found in Parvimonas.

dfrA-dnaX
Consensus secondary structure and sequence conservation of dfrA-dnaX RNA
Identifiers
SymboldfrA-dnaX
RfamRF02952
Other data
RNA typeGene; sRNA
SOSO:0001263
PDB structuresPDBe

It is ambiguous whether dfrA-dnaX RNAs function as cis-regulatory elements or not. dfrA-dnaX RNAs are apparently located in the 5' untranslated regions (UTRs) of a variety of non-homologous genes. They are almost never (<1%) in locations that are unlikely to correspond to a 5' UTR. These data suggest a role as a cis regulator. However, the motif consists entirely of a hairpin whose terminal loop is quite large, and the motif is not well conserved. This lack of conservation is surprising in view of the narrow range of organisms with the motif. Therefore, it was proposed that it is possible that the motif serves another more general role, such as Rho-independent transcription termination.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b Weinberg Z, Lünse CE, Corbino KA, Ames TD, Nelson JW, Roth A, Perkins KR, Sherlock ME, Breaker RR (October 2017). "Detection of 224 candidate structured RNAs by comparative analysis of specific subsets of intergenic regions". Nucleic Acids Res. 45 (18): 10811–10823. doi:10.1093/nar/gkx699. PMC 5737381. PMID 28977401.