title: RNA hairpin-folding kinetics.
abstract: Based on the complete ensemble of hairpin conformations, a statistical mechanical model that combines the eigenvalue solutions of the rate matrix and the free-energy landscapes has been able to predict the temperature-dependent folding rate, kinetic intermediates, and folding pathways for hairpin-forming RNA sequences. At temperatures higher than a "glass transition" temperature, T(g), the eigenvalues show a distinct time separation, and the rate-limiting step is a two-state single exponential process determined by the slowest eigenmode. At temperatures lower than T(g), no distinct time separation exists for the eigenvalues, hence multiple (slow) eigenmodes contribute to the rate-determining processes, and the folding involves the trapping and detrapping of kinetic intermediates. For a 21-nt sequence we studied, T(g) is lower than the transition temperature, T(m), for thermodynamic equilibrium folding. For T > T(m), starting from the native state, the chain undergoes a biphasic unfolding transition: a preequilibrated quasi-equilibrium macrostate is formed followed by a rate-limiting two-state transition from the macrostate to the unfolded state. For T(g) < T < T(m), the chain undergoes a two-state on-pathway folding transition, at which a nucleus is formed by the base stacks close to the loop region before a rapid assembly of the whole hairpin structure. For T < T(g), the multistate kinetics involve kinetic trapping, causing the roll-over behavior in the rate-temperature Arrhenius plot. The complex kinetic behaviors of RNA hairpins may be a paradigm for the folding kinetics of large RNAs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy and Department of Biochemistry, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA.
authors.forename: Wenbing
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Shi-Jie
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D001703:Biophysics; D007700:Kinetics; D015233:Models, Statistical; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D012313:RNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D013696:Temperature; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D012313:RNA