Small-angle X-ray scattering: a bridge between RNA secondary structures and three-dimensional topological structures
- National Inst. of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD (United States). National Cancer Inst., NCI Small Angle X-ray Scattering Core Facility
- National Inst. of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD (United States). National Cancer Inst., Protein-Nucleic Acid Interaction Section, Structural Biophysics Lab.
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)
- National Inst. of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD (United States). National Cancer Inst., NCI Small Angle X-ray Scattering Core Facility; National Inst. of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD (United States). National Cancer Inst., Protein-Nucleic Acid Interaction Section, Structural Biophysics Lab.
Whereas the structures of small to medium-sized well folded RNA molecules often can be determined by either X-ray crystallography or NMR spectroscopy, obtaining structural information for large RNAs using experimental, computational, or combined approaches remains a major interest and challenge. RNA is very sensitive to small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) due to high electron density along phosphate-sugar backbones, whose scattering contribution dominates SAXS intensity. For this reason, SAXS is particularly useful in obtaining global RNA structural information that outlines backbone topologies and, therefore, molecular envelopes. Such information is extremely valuable in bridging the gap between the secondary structures and three-dimensional topological structures of RNAmolecules, particularly those that have proven difficult to study using other structuredetermination methods. Here we review published results of RNA topological structures derived from SAXS data or in combination with other experimental data, as well as details on RNA sample preparation for SAXS experiments.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science - Office of Basic Energy Sciences - Scientific User Facilities Division; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - National Cancer Institute - Center for Cancer Research
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-06CH11357
- OSTI ID:
- 1241315
- Journal Information:
- Current Opinion in Structural Biology, Vol. 30, Issue C; ISSN 0959-440X
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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