Abstract
A simple stereochemical framework for understanding RNA structure has remained elusive to date. We present a comprehensive conformational map for two nucleoside-5',3'-diphosphates and for a truncated dinucleotide derived from a grid search of all potential conformers using hard sphere steric exclusion criteria to define allowed conformers. The eight-dimensional conformational space is presented as a series of two-dimensional projections. These projections reveal several well-defined allowed and disallowed regions which correlate well with data obtained from X-ray crystallography of both large and small RNA molecules. Furthermore, the two-dimensional projections show that consecutive and ribose ring-proximal torsion angles are interdependent, while more distant torsion angles are not. Remarkably, using steric criteria alone, it is possible to generate a predictive conformational map for RNA.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 313-327 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Journal of molecular biology |
Volume | 291 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Aug 13 1999 |
Keywords
- RNA conformation
- RNA flexibility
- RNA folding
- RNA stereochemistry
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Structural Biology
- Molecular Biology