title: Investigation of protein-RNA interactions by mass spectrometry--Techniques and applications.
abstract: Protein-RNA complexes play many important roles in diverse cellular functions. They are involved in a wide variety of different processes in growth and differentiation at the various stages of the cell cycle. As their function and catalytic activity are directly coupled to the structural arrangement of their components--proteins and ribonucleic acids--the investigation of protein-RNA interactions is of great functional and structural importance. Here we discuss the most prominent examples of protein-RNA complexes and describe some frequently used purification strategies. We present various techniques and applications of mass spectrometry to study protein-RNA complexes. We discuss the analysis of intact complexes as well as proteomics-based and crosslinking-based approaches in which proteins are cleaved into smaller peptides. This article is part of a Special Section entitled: Understanding genome regulation and genetic diversity by mass spectrometry.
authors.affiliation: Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry Group, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Carla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kramer
authors.forename: Henning
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Urlaub
mesh_terms: D001665:Binding Sites; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*; D011485:Protein Binding; D025941:Protein Interaction Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D040901:Proteomics / Q000379:methods*; D012313:RNA / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins; D012313:RNA