Computing the partition function for kinetically trapped RNA secondary structures.

ABSTRACT: An RNA secondary structure is locally optimal if there is no lower energy structure that can be obtained by the addition or removal of a single base pair, where energy is defined according to the widely accepted Turner nearest neighbor model. Locally optimal structures form kinetic traps, since any evolution away from a locally optimal structure must involve energetically unfavorable folding steps. Here, we present a novel, efficient algorithm to compute the partition function over all locally optimal secondary structures of a given RNA sequence. Our software, RNAlocopt runs in O(n3) time and O(n2) space. Additionally, RNAlocopt samples a user-specified number of structures from the Boltzmann subensemble of all locally optimal structures. We apply RNAlocopt to show that (1) the number of l

SUBMITTER: Lorenz WA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3030561 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature