Emerging structural themes in large RNA molecules

作者：Reiter Nicholas J; Chan Clarence W; Mondragon Alfonso^*

来源：Current Opinion in Structural Biology, 2011, 21(3): 319-326.

DOI：10.1016/j.sbi.2011.03.003

Extensive networks of tertiary interactions give rise to unique, highly organized domain architectures that characterize the three-dimensional structure of large RNA molecules. Formed by stacked layers of a near-planar arrangement of contiguous coaxial helices, large RNA molecules are relatively flat in overall shape. The functional core of these molecules is stabilized by a diverse set of tertiary interaction motifs that often bring together distant regions of conserved nucleotides. Although homologous RNAs from different organisms can be structurally diverse, they adopt a structurally conserved functional core that includes preassembled active and/or substrate binding sites. These findings broaden our understanding of RNA folding and tertiary structure stabilization, illustrating how large, complex RNAs assemble into unique structures to perform recognition and catalysis.

• 出版日期2011-6
• 单位西北大学