Browsing by Subject "RNA Folding"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Computational Methods for RNA Structure Validation and Improvement.
    (Methods Enzymol, 2015) Jain, Swati; Richardson, David C; Richardson, Jane S
    With increasing recognition of the roles RNA molecules and RNA/protein complexes play in an unexpected variety of biological processes, understanding of RNA structure-function relationships is of high current importance. To make clean biological interpretations from three-dimensional structures, it is imperative to have high-quality, accurate RNA crystal structures available, and the community has thoroughly embraced that goal. However, due to the many degrees of freedom inherent in RNA structure (especially for the backbone), it is a significant challenge to succeed in building accurate experimental models for RNA structures. This chapter describes the tools and techniques our research group and our collaborators have developed over the years to help RNA structural biologists both evaluate and achieve better accuracy. Expert analysis of large, high-resolution, quality-conscious RNA datasets provides the fundamental information that enables automated methods for robust and efficient error diagnosis in validating RNA structures at all resolutions. The even more crucial goal of correcting the diagnosed outliers has steadily developed toward highly effective, computationally based techniques. Automation enables solving complex issues in large RNA structures, but cannot circumvent the need for thoughtful examination of local details, and so we also provide some guidance for interpreting and acting on the results of current structure validation for RNA.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    In vivo architecture of the telomerase RNA catalytic core in Trypanosoma brucei.
    (Nucleic acids research, 2021-12) Dey, Abhishek; Monroy-Eklund, Anais; Klotz, Kaitlin; Saha, Arpita; Davis, Justin; Li, Bibo; Laederach, Alain; Chakrabarti, Kausik
    Telomerase is a unique ribonucleoprotein (RNP) reverse transcriptase that utilizes its cognate RNA molecule as a template for telomere DNA repeat synthesis. Telomerase contains the reverse transcriptase protein, TERT and the template RNA, TR, as its core components. The 5'-half of TR forms a highly conserved catalytic core comprising of the template region and adjacent domains necessary for telomere synthesis. However, how telomerase RNA folding takes place in vivo has not been fully understood due to low abundance of the native RNP. Here, using unicellular pathogen Trypanosoma brucei as a model, we reveal important regional folding information of the native telomerase RNA core domains, i.e. TR template, template boundary element, template proximal helix and Helix IV (eCR4-CR5) domain. For this purpose, we uniquely combined in-cell probing with targeted high-throughput RNA sequencing and mutational mapping under three conditions: in vivo (in WT and TERT-/- cells), in an immunopurified catalytically active telomerase RNP complex and ex vivo (deproteinized). We discover that TR forms at least two different conformers with distinct folding topologies in the insect and mammalian developmental stages of T. brucei. Also, TERT does not significantly affect the RNA folding in vivo, suggesting that the telomerase RNA in T. brucei exists in a conformationally preorganized stable structure. Our observed differences in RNA (TR) folding at two distinct developmental stages of T. brucei suggest that important conformational changes are a key component of T. brucei development.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Increasing the length of poly-pyrimidine bulges broadens RNA conformational ensembles with minimal impact on stacking energetics.
    (RNA (New York, N.Y.), 2018-07-16) Merriman, Dawn K; Yuan, Jiayi; Shi, Honglue; Majumdar, Ananya; Herschlag, Daniel; Al-Hashimi, Hashim M
    Helical elements separated by bulges frequently undergo transitions between unstacked and coaxially stacked conformations during the folding and function of non-coding RNAs. Here, we examine the dynamic properties of poly-pyrimidine bulges of varying length (n = 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7) across a range of Mg2+ concentrations using HIV-1 TAR RNA as a model system and solution NMR spectroscopy. In the absence of Mg2+ (25 mM monovalent salt), helices linked by bulges with n ≥ 3 residues adopt predominantly unstacked conformations (stacked population < 15%) whereas 1-bulge and 2-bulge motifs adopt predominantly stacked conformations (stacked population > 74%). The 2-bulge motif is biased toward linear conformations and increasing the bulge length leads to broader inter-helical distributions and structures that are on average more kinked. In the presence of 3 mM Mg2+, the helices predominantly coaxially stack (stacked population > 84%), regardless of bulge length, and the midpoint for the Mg2+-dependent stacking transition does not vary substantially (within 3-fold) with bulge length. In the absence of Mg2+, the difference between the free energy of inter-helical coaxial stacking across the bulge variants is estimated to be ≈2.9 kcal/mol, based on an NMR chemical shift mapping approach, with stacking being more energetically disfavored for the longer bulges. This difference decreases to ≈0.4 kcal/mol in the presence of 3 mM Mg2+ NMR residual dipolar coupling and resonance intensity data show increased dynamics in the stacked state with increasing bulge length in the presence of Mg2+ We propose that Mg2+ helps to neutralize the growing electrostatic repulsion in the stacked state with increasing bulge length thereby increasing the number of coaxial conformations that are sampled. Energetically compensated inter-helical stacking dynamics may help to maximize the conformational adaptability of RNA and allow a wide range of conformations to be optimally stabilized by proteins and ligands.