Pervasive RNA tertiary structures across the transcriptome

Kevin Weeks

Department of Chemistry, CB-3290, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3290,USA, weeks@unc.edu

RNAs are critical regulators of gene expression, and their functions are often mediated by complex secondary and tertiary structures. Structured regions in RNA can also selectively interact with small molecules – via well-defined ligand binding pockets – to modulate the regulatory repertoire of an RNA. To date, the extent of known classes of RNA tertiary structures is remarkably small. We are working in several directions to understand the ligandablity of RNA, to create efficient methods for determining high-resolution structures of small RNAs by cryo-EM, and to identify novel RNA tertiary structures transcriptome-wide.  Progress in each of these areas will be discussed, including discovery of novel, function-altering 3D structures in mRNAs.

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