Universality in RNA and DNA deformations induced by salt, temperature change, stretching force, and protein binding.

ABSTRACT: Nucleic acid deformations play important roles in many biological processes. The physical understanding of nucleic acid deformation by environmental stimuli is limited due to the challenge in the precise measurement of RNA and DNA deformations and the complexity of interactions in RNA and DNA. Magnetic tweezers experiments provide an excellent opportunity to precisely measure DNA and RNA twist changes induced by environmental stimuli. In this work, we applied magnetic tweezers to measure double-stranded RNA twist changes induced by salt and temperature changes. We observed RNA unwinds when lowering salt concentration, or increasing temperature. Our molecular dynamics simulations revealed the mechanism: lowering salt concentration or increasing temperature enlarges RNA major groove width, w

SUBMITTER: Tian FJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10193934 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature