Mechanical unfolding of RNA: from hairpins to structures with internal multiloops.

ABSTRACT: Mechanical unfolding of RNA structures, ranging from hairpins to ribozymes, using laser optical tweezer experiments have begun to reveal the features of the energy landscape that cannot be easily explored using conventional experiments. Upon application of constant force (f), RNA hairpins undergo cooperative transitions from folded to unfolded states whereas subdomains of ribozymes unravel one at a time. Here, we use a self-organized polymer model and Brownian dynamics simulations to probe mechanical unfolding at constant force and constant-loading rate of four RNA structures of varying complexity. For simple hairpins, such as P5GA, application of constant force or constant loading rate results in bistable cooperative transitions between folded and unfolded states without populating any in

SUBMITTER: Hyeon C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1779982 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature