Determining the conformation of RNAs in solution. Application to a retroviral system: structure of the HIV-1 primer binding site region and effect of tRNA(3Lys) binding.
RNAs play a crucial and central role in a large variety of biological functions obviously linked to the wide variety of structures that they can adopt. Understanding the function of RNAs thus requires the knowledge of their two- and three-dimensional structures. We describe in detail the way to access the secondary structure of RNAs, by combining sequence comparison, secondary structure prediction by computer and, mainly, experimental data obtained by probing with chemicals and ribonucleases. These approaches were used to investigate secondary structure of the region containing the primer binding site of HIV-1 genomic RNA either free or involved in the binary complex with the replication primer tRNA(3Lys).
Isel
C
C
UPR 9002 du CNRS, Institut de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Strasbourg, France.
Ehresmann
C
C
Ehresmann
B
B
Marquet
R
R
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001665:Binding Sites; D017931:DNA Primers; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D012357:RNA, Transfer, Lys / Q000737:chemistry*; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry*; D012996:Solutions
D017931:DNA Primers; D012357:RNA, Transfer, Lys; D012367:RNA, Viral; D012996:Solutions