title: Exposing the kinetic traps in RNA folding.
abstract: Large ribozymes fold on a 'glacial' timescale compared to the folding of their protein counterparts. The sluggish folding exhibited by large RNAs results from the formation of kinetically trapped, misfolded intermediates, which are nonessential features of the folding mechanism. Newly developed mutant ribozymes that avoid kinetic traps should facilitate the study of the RNA folding problem.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. treiber@scripps.edu
authors.forename: D K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Treiber
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Williamson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D004722:Endoribonucleases / Q000737:chemistry; D007700:Kinetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D008970:Molecular Weight; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D012313:RNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D012329:RNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry; D016337:RNA, Catalytic / Q000737:chemistry; D016053:RNA, Protozoan / Q000737:chemistry; D043262:Ribonuclease P; D013768:Tetrahymena / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D012329:RNA, Bacterial; D016337:RNA, Catalytic; D016053:RNA, Protozoan; D012313:RNA; D004722:Endoribonucleases; D043262:Ribonuclease P