University of Barcelona team describes new biochemistry for RNA at low temperatures (IMAGE)
Caption
An artistic representation of the temperature dependence of the RNA free-energy landscape (FEL) of folding. The authors showed that RNAs undergo a phase transition in the cold and misfold due to the FEL changing with temperature. Upon lowering the temperature, the smooth desertic landscape where the system readily finds the energy global minimum to fold into the native hairpin makes way to deep gorges separated by high barriers. The system gets trapped in these local minima that yield a diversity of misfolded conformations.
Credit
Paolo Rissone, University of Barcelona
Usage Restrictions
Credit must be given to the creator.
License
CC BY