Event

Re-writing Nucleic Acid Structure by NMR

Abstract: The development and application of NMR methods for characterizing the dynamic properties of RNA and DNA structure at atomic resolution will be described. In particular, we describe how elongation of nucleic acids makes it possible to decouple internal and overall motions and to quantitatively interpret NMR residual dipolar couplings and spin relaxation data in terms of 3D dynamic structure ensembles consisting of conformations that interconvert at timescales ranging between picosecond and milliseconds. NMR methods based on carbon and nitrogen R1rho relaxation dispersion will also be presented that permit the structural characterization of transient excited state structures in both DNA and RNA. I will describe how these new insights into the dynamic behavior of nucleic acids has resulted in a fundamental shift in our view of how these molecules fold and carry out their biological functions as well as resulting in new applications in biotechnology and drug discovery.