Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
Phys Rev Lett. 2010 Apr 16;104(15):158101. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.158101. Epub 2010 Apr 15.
Helix-coil transition kinetics of polyadenylic acid [poly(A)] inside a small protein channel is investigated for the first time, at the single molecule level. The confinement of a RNA molecule inside the channel slows its kinetics by nearly 3 orders of magnitude as compared to bulk measurements of free poly(A). These findings are related to the interaction energy of the RNA structure with the interior of the pore, explained by a simple two-state model. These results shed light on the way intermolecular interactions alter nucleic acid kinetics.
首次在单分子水平上研究了多聚腺苷酸[poly(A)]在小蛋白通道内的螺旋-卷曲转变动力学。与自由 poly(A)的体相测量相比，RNA 分子在通道内的限制使其动力学减慢了近 3 个数量级。这些发现与 RNA 结构与孔内的相互作用能有关，可以用一个简单的两态模型来解释。这些结果揭示了分子间相互作用改变核酸动力学的方式。
