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Chapitre D'ouvrage Année : 2000

RNA tertiary structure

Pascal Auffinger
Eric Westhof
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Résumé

Ribonucleic acids are negatively charged polymers assembled from four different types of monomers. Each monomer is made of an invariant phosphorylated sugar to which is attached one of the four standard nucleic acid bases; the pyrimidines uracil and cytosine, and the purines guanine and adenine. The first level of organization is thus the sequence of bases attached to the sugar–phosphate backbone. In salty water, the RNA molecules fold back on themselves via Watson–Crick base pairing between the bases (A with U, G with C or U) leading to double-stranded helices interrupted by single-stranded regions in internal loops or hairpin loops. The enumeration of the base-paired regions or helices constitutes a description of the second level of organization, the secondary structure. The methods available to deduce the secondary structure of an RNA molecule are mainly of three types: the phylogenetic approach, the theoretical prediction, and chemical/enzymatic methods. The secondary structure of an RNA molecule is experimentally accessible and its content measurable. Under appropriate conditions, structuredRNAmolecules undergo a transition to a three-dimensional (3D) fold in which the helices and the unpaired regions are precisely organized in space. This folding process usually depends on the presence of divalent ions, such asmagnesium ions, and on the temperature. The tertiary structure is the level of organization relevant for biological function of structured RNA molecules.
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Dates et versions

hal-03838735 , version 1 (03-11-2022)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-03838735 , version 1

Citer

Pascal Auffinger, Eric Westhof. RNA tertiary structure. Meyers RA. Encyclopedia of Analytical Chemistry, Wiley & Sons Ltd, pp.5222-32, 2000. ⟨hal-03838735⟩

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