SAXS studies of RNA: structures, dynamics, and interactions with partners

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• 作者：Yujie Chen and Lois Pollack
• 刊名：Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: RNA
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：July/August 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：7
• 期：4
• 页码：512-526
• 全文大小：1262K
• ISSN：1757-7012

文摘

Small-angle X-ray scattering, SAXS, is a powerful and easily employed experimental technique that provides solution structures of macromolecules. The size and shape parameters derived from SAXS provide global structural information about these molecules in solution and essentially complement data acquired by other biophysical methods. As applied to protein systems, SAXS is a relatively mature technology: sophisticated tools exist to acquire and analyze data, and to create structural models that include dynamically flexible ensembles. Given the expanding appreciation of RNA’s biological roles, there is a need to develop comparable tools to characterize solution structures of RNA, including its interactions with important biological partners. We review the progress toward achieving this goal, focusing on experimental and computational innovations. The use of multiphase modeling, absolute calibration and contrast variation methods, among others, provides new and often unique ways of visualizing this important biological molecule and its essential partners: ions, other RNAs, or proteins. WIREs RNA 2016, 7:512–526. doi: 10.1002/wrna.1349