Impact of loop statistics on the thermodynamics of RNA folding

Phys Rev Lett. 2008 Jul 25;101(4):048103. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.048103. Epub 2008 Jul 24.

Abstract

Loops are abundant in native RNA structures and proliferate close to the unfolding transition. By including a statistical weight approximately l(-c) for loops of length l in the recursion relation for the partition function, we show that the heat capacity depends sensitively on the presence and value of the exponent c, even for a short explicit tRNA sequence. For long homo-RNA, we analytically calculate the critical temperature and critical exponents which exhibit a nonuniversal dependence on c.

MeSH terms

  • Models, Chemical*
  • Nucleic Acid Conformation
  • RNA / chemistry*
  • RNA, Fungal / chemistry
  • RNA, Transfer, Phe / chemistry
  • Thermodynamics
  • Yeasts / chemistry
  • Yeasts / genetics

Substances

  • RNA, Fungal
  • RNA, Transfer, Phe
  • RNA