Related papers: RNA folding landscapes from explicit solvent all-a…
The conformation space of a 20-residue antiparallel $\beta$-sheet peptide, sampled by molecular dynamics simulations, is mapped to a network. Conformations are nodes of the network, and the transitions between them are links. The…
We introduce a method for predicting RNA folding pathways, with an application to the most important RNA tetraloops. The method is based on the idea that ensembles of three-dimensional fragments extracted from high-resolution crystal…
The folding pathway and rate coefficients of the folding of a knotted protein are calculated for a potential energy function with minimal energetic frustration. A kinetic transition network is constructed using the discrete path sampling…
We review the basic concepts and tools for mechanically unzipping RNA hairpins using force spectroscopy. By pulling apart the ends of an RNA molecule using optical tweezers, it is possible to measure the folding free energy at varying…
The increasing importance of RNA as a prime player in biology can hardly be overstated. Problems in RNA, such as folding and RNA-RNA interactions that drive phase separation, require cations. Because experiments alone cannot reveal the…
The forming and melting of complementary base pairs in RNA duplexes are conformational transitions required to accomplish a plethora of biological functions. Yet the dynamic steps of these transitions have not been quantitatively…
The problem of RNA secondary structure design (also called inverse folding) is the following: given a target secondary structure, one aims to create a sequence that folds into, or is compatible with, a given structure. In several practical…
The computational study of conformational transitions in nucleic acids still faces many challenges. For example, in the case of single stranded RNA tetranucleotides, agreement between simulations and experiments is not satisfactory due to…
A central goal of protein-folding theory is to predict the stochastic dynamics of transition paths --- the rare trajectories that transit between the folded and unfolded ensembles --- using only thermodynamic information, such as a…
We study the coupled dynamics of primary and secondary structure formation (i.e. slow genetic sequence selection and fast folding) in the context of a solvable microscopic model that includes both short-range steric forces and and…
We employ simulations of model proteins to study folding on rugged energy landscapes. We construct ``first-passage'' networks as the system transitions from unfolded to native states. The nodes and bonds in these networks correspond to…
Exact numerical methods and stochastic simulation methods are developed to study the force stretching single RNA issue on the secondary structure level in equilibrium. By computing the force-extension curves on the constant force and the…
We describe a dynamic programming algorithm for predicting optimal RNA secondary structure, including pseudoknots. The algorithm has a worst case complexity of ${\cal O}(N^6)$ in time and ${\cal O}(N^4)$ in storage. The description of the…
A microscopic theory of the free energy barriers and folding routes for minimally frustrated proteins is presented, greatly expanding on the presentation of the variational approach outlined previously [J. J. Portman, S. Takada, P. G.…
Conformational dynamics is crucial for ribonucleic acid (RNA) function. Techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance, cryo-electron microscopy, small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering, chemical probing, single-molecule F\"orster resonance…
HiRE-RNA is a simplified, coarse-grained RNA model for the prediction of equilibrium configurations, dynamics and thermodynamics. Using a reduced set of particles and detailed interactions accounting for base-pairing and stacking we show…
Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) experiments are increasingly used to probe RNA structure. A number of \emph{forward models} that relate measured SAXS intensities and structural features, and that are suitable to model either…
RNA function crucially depends on its structure. Thermodynamic models currently used for secondary structure prediction rely on computing the partition function of folding ensembles, and can thus estimate minimum free-energy structures and…
We propose a scenario for the prebiotic co-evolution of RNA and of fast folding proteins with large entropy gaps as observed today. We show from very general principles that the folding and unfolding of the proteins synthesized by RNA can…
Energy landscape theory describes how a full-length protein can attain its native fold by sampling only a tiny fraction of all possible structures. Although protein folding is now understood to be concomitant with synthesis on the ribosome,…