Related papers: On an RNA-membrane protogenome
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small noncoding RNAs that can regulate many genes by base pairing to sites in mRNAs. The functionality of miRNAs overlaps that of short interfering RNAs (siRNAs), and many features of miRNA targeting have…
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…
Pre-mRNA splicing relies on the poorly understood dynamic interplay between >150 protein components of the spliceosome. The steps at which splicing can be regulated remain largely unknown. We systematically analyzed the effect of knocking…
In higher eukaryotes, alternative splicing is usually regulated by protein factors, which bind to the pre-mRNA and affect the recognition of splicing signals. There is recent evidence that the secondary structure of the pre-mRNA may also…
Ribonucleic acid (RNA) binds to molecules to achieve specific biological functions. While generative models are advancing biomolecule design, existing methods for designing RNA that target specific ligands face limitations in capturing…
Non-coding RNA structure and function are essential to understanding various biological processes, such as cell signaling, gene expression, and post-transcriptional regulations. These are all among the core problems in the RNA field. With…
Protein synthesis rates are determined, at the translational level, by properties of the transcript's sequence. The efficiency of an mRNA can be tuned by varying the ribosome binding sites controlling the recruitment of the ribosomes, or…
We enumerate the number of RNA contact structures according to their genus, i.e. the topological character of their pseudoknots. By using a recently proposed matrix model formulation for the RNA folding problem, we obtain exact results for…
An RNA sequence is a word over an alphabet on four elements $\{A,C,G,U\}$ called bases. RNA sequences fold into secondary structures where some bases match one another while others remain unpaired. Pseudoknot-free secondary structures can…
The observation that, through a titration mechanism, microRNAs (miRNAs) can act as mediators of effective interactions among their common targets (competing endogenous RNAs or ceRNAs) has brought forward the idea ('ceRNA hypothesis') that…
The majority of mammalian genomic transcripts do not directly code for proteins and it is currently believed that most of these are not under evolutionary constraint. However given the abundance non-coding RNA (ncRNA) and its strong…
The process of RNA base fraying (i.e. the transient opening of the termini of a helix) is involved in many aspects of RNA dynamics. We here use molecular dynamics simulations and Markov state models to characterize the kinetics of RNA…
The computer-aided folding of biomolecules, particularly RNAs, is one of the most difficult challenges in computational structural biology. RNA tetraloops are fundamental RNA motifs playing key roles in RNA folding and RNA-RNA and…
Riboswitches are structured mRNA elements that modulate gene expression. They undergo conformational changes triggered by highly specific interactions with sensed metabolites. Among the structural rearrangements engaged by riboswitches, the…
Antiterminators are essential components of bacterial transcriptional regulation, allowing the control of gene expression in response to fluctuating environmental conditions. Among them, RNA-binding antiterminator proteins play a major role…
Three-dimensional DNA networks, composed of tri- or higher valent nanostars with sticky, single-stranded DNA overhangs, have been previously studied in the context of designing thermally responsive, viscoelastic hydrogels. In this work, we…
The translocation of structured RNA or DNA molecules through narrow pores necessitates the opening of all base pairs. Here, we study the interplay between the dynamics of translocation and base-pairing theoretically, using kinetic Monte…
DNA dependent RNA polymerase core subunits abb' conserved residues at frequencies most closely matched with codons at stage 10.4-11.1 in code evolution. An excess of acidic residues (stage 2 additions) lowered this estimate, but not by more…
Cell membranes interact via anchored receptor and ligand molecules. Central questions on cell adhesion concern the binding affinity of these membrane-anchored molecules, the mechanisms leading to the receptor-ligand domains observed during…
Riboswitches, structured elements in the untranslated regions of messenger RNAs, regulate gene expression by binding specific metabolites. We introduce a kinetic network model that describes the functions of riboswitches at the systems…