Acad. E. Djakov Institute of Electronics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 72 Tzarigradsko Chaussee Blvd., 1784 Sofia, Bulgaria.
Metallomics. 2018 May 23;10(5):659-678. doi: 10.1039/c8mt00043c.
Alkaline and alkaline earth ions, namely Na+, K+, Mg2+ and Ca2+, are critical for the stability, proper folding and functioning of RNA. Moreover, those metal ions help to facilitate macromolecular interactions as well as the formation of supramolecular structures (e.g. the ribosome and the ribozymes). Therefore, identifying the interactions between ions and nucleic acids is a key to the better comprehension of the physical nature and biological functions of those biomolecules. The scope of this review is to highlight the preferential location and binding sites of alkaline and alkaline earth metal ions compensating the negatively charged backbone of nucleic acids and interacting with other electronegative centers, focusing on RNA. We summarize experimental studies from X-ray crystallography and spectroscopic analysis (infrared, Raman and NMR spectroscopies). Computational results obtained with classical and ab initio methods are presented afterwards.
碱金属和碱土金属离子，即 Na+、K+、Mg2+ 和 Ca2+，对 RNA 的稳定性、正确折叠和功能至关重要。此外，这些金属离子有助于促进大分子相互作用以及超分子结构的形成（例如核糖体和核酶）。因此，确定离子与核酸之间的相互作用是更好地理解这些生物分子的物理性质和生物功能的关键。本综述的范围是强调碱金属和碱土金属离子的优先位置和结合位点，补偿核酸的带负电荷的骨架，并与其他电负性中心相互作用，重点是 RNA。我们总结了 X 射线晶体学和光谱分析（红外、拉曼和 NMR 光谱学）的实验研究。随后介绍了使用经典和从头算方法获得的计算结果。
