Cooperativity along kinetic pathways in RNA folding

G. A. APPIGNANESI; A. FERNÁNDEZ

JOURNAL OF PHYSICS. A - MATHEMATICAL AND GENERAL

IOP - INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS

Lugar: Londres; Año: 1996 vol. 29 p. 6265 - 6280

0305-4470

Based on kinetic arguments we obtain the time-dependent probability of occurrence of interactions of different ranges for biopolymer folding in vitro under realistic time constraints. We focus on random primary sequences in order to fit our results within the context of disordered condensed matter. For the sake of illustration, the results are specialized for RNA folding. They account for the cooperative effects on the different ranges of interaction and quantify the time evolution of their contribution to folding. We also discuss the implications of these results in the understanding of the RNA folding mechanism. Our results furnish evidence supporting the existence of a universal kinetic intermediate in such a process, in accord with previously obtained experimental results.