Measuring thermodynamic preferences to form non-native conformations in nucleic acids using ultraviolet melting.

ABSTRACT: Thermodynamic preferences to form non-native conformations are crucial for understanding how nucleic acids fold and function. However, they are difficult to measure experimentally because this requires accurately determining the population of minor low-abundance (<10%) conformations in a sea of other conformations. Here, we show that melting experiments enable facile measurements of thermodynamic preferences to adopt nonnative conformations in DNA and RNA. The key to this "delta-melt" approach is to use chemical modifications to render specific minor non-native conformations the major state. The validity and robustness of delta-melt is established for four different non-native conformations under various physiological conditions and sequence contexts through independent measurements of the

SUBMITTER: Rangadurai A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9214542 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature