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Cooperativity and Allostery in RNA Systems

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Allostery

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 2253))

Abstract

Allostery is among the most basic biological principles employed by biological macromolecules to achieve a biologically active state in response to chemical cues. Although initially used to describe the impact of small molecules on the conformation and activity of protein enzymes, the definition of this term has been significantly broadened to describe long-range conformational change of macromolecules in response to small or large effectors. Such a broad definition could be applied to RNA molecules, which do not typically serve as protein-free cellular enzymes but fold and form macromolecular assemblies with the help of various ligand molecules, including ions and proteins. Ligand-induced allosteric changes in RNA molecules are often accompanied by cooperative interactions between RNA and its ligand, thus streamlining the folding and assembly pathways. This chapter provides an overview of the interplay between cooperativity and allostery in RNA systems and outlines methods to study these two biological principles.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the NIH grants GM112940 and MH112165 (A.S.) and the NIH fellowship F31GM119357 (A.P.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

    Alla Peselis & Alexander Serganov

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  1. Alla Peselis
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  2. Alexander Serganov
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Correspondence to Alexander Serganov .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Unit of Chemical-Physics Fundamentals in Chemical Engineering Department of Engineering, Universitá Campus Bio-Medico di Rome, Rome, Italy

    Luisa Di Paola

  2. Environment and Health Department, Instituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy

    Alessandro Giuliani

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Peselis, A., Serganov, A. (2021). Cooperativity and Allostery in RNA Systems. In: Di Paola, L., Giuliani, A. (eds) Allostery. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2253. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1154-8_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1154-8_15

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  • Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY

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