Occurrence and stability of lone pair-π stacking interactions between ribose and nucleobases in functional RNAs.

ABSTRACT: The specific folding pattern and function of RNA molecules lies in various weak interactions, in addition to the strong base-base pairing and stacking. One of these relatively weak interactions, characterized by the stacking of the O4' atom of a ribose on top of the heterocycle ring of a nucleobase, has been known to occur but has largely been ignored in the description of RNA structures. We identified 2015 ribose-base stacking interactions in a high-resolution set of non-redundant RNA crystal structures. They are widespread in structured RNA molecules and are located in structural motifs other than regular stems. Over 50% of them involve an adenine, as we found ribose-adenine contacts to be recurring elements in A-minor motifs. Fewer than 50% of the interactions involve a ribose and a bas

SUBMITTER: Chawla M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5737201 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature