Challenge of mimicking the influences of the cellular environment on RNA structure by PEG-induced macromolecular crowding.

ABSTRACT: There are large differences between the cellular environment and the conditions widely used to study RNA in vitro. SHAPE RNA structure probing in Escherichia coli cells has shown that the cellular environment stabilizes both long-range and local tertiary interactions in the adenine riboswitch aptamer domain. Synthetic crowding agents are widely used to understand the forces that stabilize RNA structure and in efforts to recapitulate the cellular environment under simplified experimental conditions. Here, we studied the structure and ligand binding ability of the adenine riboswitch in the presence of the macromolecular crowding agent, polyethylene glycol (PEG). Ethylene glycol and low-molecular mass PEGs destabilized RNA structure and caused the riboswitch to sample secondary structures dif

SUBMITTER: Tyrrell J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4893815 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature