How RNA folds.

@article{citeulike:531781, abstract = {We describe the RNA folding problem and contrast it with the much more difficult protein folding problem. RNA has four similar monomer units, whereas proteins have 20 very different residues. The folding of RNA is hierarchical in that secondary structure is much more stable than tertiary folding. In RNA the two levels of folding (secondary and tertiary) can be experimentally separated by the presence or absence of Mg2+. Secondary structure can be predicted successfully from experimental thermodynamic data on secondary structure elements: helices, loops, and bulges. Tertiary interactions can then be added without much distortion of the secondary structure. These observations suggest a folding algorithm to predict the structure of an RNA from its sequence. However, to solve the RNA folding problem one needs thermodynamic data on tertiary structure interactions, and identification and characterization of metal-ion binding sites. These data, together with force versus extension measurements on single RNA molecules, should provide the information necessary to test and refine the proposed algorithm.}, address = {Department of Chemistry, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-1460, USA.}, author = {Tinoco, I. and Bustamante, C. }, citeulike-article-id = {531781}, doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jmbi.1999.3001}, issn = {0022-2836}, journal = {J Mol Biol}, keywords = {folding, prediction, rna}, month = {October}, number = {2}, pages = {271--281}, posted-at = {2007-12-06 14:40:49}, priority = {3}, title = {How RNA folds.}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jmbi.1999.3001}, volume = {293}, year = {1999} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:531781 L3 - citeulike-article-id:531781 TI - How RNA folds. JF - J Mol Biol VL - 293 IS - 2 SP - 271 EP - 281 AD - Department of Chemistry, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-1460, USA. SN - 0022-2836 N2 - We describe the RNA folding problem and contrast it with the much more difficult protein folding problem. RNA has four similar monomer units, whereas proteins have 20 very different residues. The folding of RNA is hierarchical in that secondary structure is much more stable than tertiary folding. In RNA the two levels of folding (secondary and tertiary) can be experimentally separated by the presence or absence of Mg2+. Secondary structure can be predicted successfully from experimental thermodynamic data on secondary structure elements: helices, loops, and bulges. Tertiary interactions can then be added without much distortion of the secondary structure. These observations suggest a folding algorithm to predict the structure of an RNA from its sequence. However, to solve the RNA folding problem one needs thermodynamic data on tertiary structure interactions, and identification and characterization of metal-ion binding sites. These data, together with force versus extension measurements on single RNA molecules, should provide the information necessary to test and refine the proposed algorithm. KW - folding KW - prediction KW - rna AU - Tinoco, I AU - Bustamante, C PY - 1999/10/22/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jmbi.1999.3001 ER -