Search results for "Nucleic acid tertiary structure"

Single-molecule FRET studies of counterion effects on the free energy landscape of human mitochondrial lysine tRNA.

2011

The folding energy landscape of RNA is greatly affected by interactions between the RNA and counterions that neutralize the backbone negative charges and may also participate in tertiary contacts. Valence, size, coordination number, and electron shell structure can all contribute to the energetic stabilization of specific RNA conformations. Using single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer (smFRET), we have examined the folding properties of the RNA transcript of human mitochondrial tRNA(Lys), which possesses two different folded states in addition to the unfolded one under conditions of thermodynamic equilibrium. We have quantitatively analyzed the degree of RNA tertiary structu…