title: Dynamics-based amplification of RNA function and its characterization by using NMR spectroscopy.
abstract: The ever-increasing cellular roles ascribed to RNA raise fundamental questions regarding how a biopolymer composed of only four chemically similar building-block nucleotides achieves such functional diversity. Here, I discuss how RNA achieves added mechanistic and chemical complexity by undergoing highly controlled conformational changes in response to a variety of cellular signals. I examine pathways for achieving selectivity in these conformational changes that rely to different extents on the structure and dynamics of RNA. Finally, I review solution-state NMR techniques that can be used to characterize RNA structural dynamics and its relationship to function.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biophysics Research Division, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. hashimi@umich.edu
authors.forename: Hashim M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Al-Hashimi
mesh_terms: D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D012313:RNA / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D012313:RNA