A new paradigm for the folding of ribonucleic acids
Recent findings show the important role of ribonucleic acid (RNA) within the cell, be it the control of gene expression, the regulation of several homeostatic processes, in addition to the transcription and translation of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) into protein. If we wish to understand how the cell works, we first need to understand its components and how they interact, and in particular for RNA. The function of a molecule is tributary of its three-dimensional (3D) structure. However, experimental determination of RNA 3D structures imparts great costs. Current methods for RNA structure prediction by computers only take into account the classical or canonical base pairs, similar to those found in the well-celebrated DNA double helix. Here, we improved RNA structure prediction by taking into account all possible types of base pairs, even those said non-canonicals. This is made possible in the context of a new paradigm for the folding of RNA, based on nucleotide cyclic motifs (NCM): basic blocks for the construction of RNA. Furthermore, we have developed new metrics to quantify the precision of RNA 3D structure prediction methods, given the recent introduction of many of those methods. Finally, we have evaluated the predictive power of the latest low-resolution RNA structure probing techniques.
Ribonucleic acid Structure prediction Structure comparison Structure evaluation Non-canonical base pairs