Evaluating and learning from RNA pseudotorsional space: quantitative validation of a reduced representation for RNA structure.

ABSTRACT: Quantitatively describing RNA structure and conformational elements remains a formidable problem. Seven standard torsion angles and the sugar pucker are necessary to characterize the conformation of an RNA nucleotide completely. Progress has been made toward understanding the discrete nature of RNA structure, but classifying simple and ubiquitous structural elements such as helices and motifs remains a difficult task. One approach for describing RNA structure in a simple, mathematically consistent, and computationally accessible manner involves the invocation of two pseudotorsions, eta (C4'(n-1), P(n), C4'(n), P(n+1)) and theta (P(n), C4'(n), P(n+1), C4'(n+1)), which can be used to describe RNA conformation in much the same way that varphi and psi are used to describe backbone configuratio

SUBMITTER: Wadley LM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2720064 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature