| STUDY |
Looking in on RNA folding As RNA attracts increased attention for its various biological roles, scientists want a clear picture of how RNAs fold into their native shapes. In one approach, a team led by chemists Xiaowei Zhuang of Harvard University and Nils G. Walter of the University of Michigan use a combination of single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy, site-specific mutations, and metal-ion titration to study transition states in the folding of a hairpin ribozyme [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, published online July 17, http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1133280100]. They find that tertiary contacts involving backbone functional groups are only partially formed in the transition state, while those involving interdomain base pairs are not formed at all, even though the two helical domains are close to one another. The ribozyme folding is stabilized by both divalent and monovalent ions, suggesting that specific metal binding is not necessary for folding but that nonspecific electrostatic interactions are crucial to the process. The researchers believe that compact transition states without well-formed tertiary contacts may be a general property of elementary RNA folding reactions. |
| UPDATE | 07.03 |
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