Molecular-crowding effects on single-molecule RNA folding/unfolding thermodynamics and kinetics

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1316039111
• Publication Date: 2014-05-22T06:20:02Z
• Authors: Nicholas F. Dupuis; Erik D. Holmstrom; David J. Nesbitt
• Keywords: Macromolecular Crowding; Folding (DSP implementation); Crowding

Significance The cell cytoplasm is a multicomponent solution that much more concentrated than typically sampled in conventional vitro studies. presence of cosolutes can strongly influence biomolecular folding due to “molecular-crowding” effects, which are poorly understood and yet crucial understand. In this study, the thermodynamics/kinetics “crowding” effects probed at single-molecule level for an isolated RNA tertiary interaction. We observe dramatic stabilization folded state and, first time (to our knowledge), establish kinetic origin molecular crowding be dominated by entropic acceleration folding.