Department of Molecular Biosciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
Curr Opin Struct Biol. 2011 Jun;21(3):319-26. doi: 10.1016/j.sbi.2011.03.003. Epub 2011 Apr 7.
Extensive networks of tertiary interactions give rise to unique, highly organized domain architectures that characterize the three-dimensional structure of large RNA molecules. Formed by stacked layers of a near-planar arrangement of contiguous coaxial helices, large RNA molecules are relatively flat in overall shape. The functional core of these molecules is stabilized by a diverse set of tertiary interaction motifs that often bring together distant regions of conserved nucleotides. Although homologous RNAs from different organisms can be structurally diverse, they adopt a structurally conserved functional core that includes preassembled active and/or substrate binding sites. These findings broaden our understanding of RNA folding and tertiary structure stabilization, illustrating how large, complex RNAs assemble into unique structures to perform recognition and catalysis.
广泛的三级相互作用网络产生了独特的、高度组织化的结构域架构，这些架构是大 RNA 分子三维结构的特征。大 RNA 分子由堆叠的近乎平面排列的连续同轴螺旋组成，整体形状相对平坦。这些分子的功能核心由一系列不同的三级相互作用基序稳定，这些基序常常将保守核苷酸的远距离区域聚集在一起。尽管来自不同生物体的同源 RNA 在结构上可能有所不同，但它们采用结构保守的功能核心，包括预组装的活性和/或底物结合位点。这些发现拓宽了我们对 RNA 折叠和三级结构稳定的理解，说明了大、复杂的 RNA 如何组装成独特的结构以进行识别和催化。
