The latest EteRNA paper, describing an unexpected pattern in biology’s favorite RNA sequence, poly(A), was written solely by Eterna players!
Evidence of an Unusual Poly(A) RNA Signature Detected by Highthroughput Chemical Mapping
Homopolymeric adenosine RNA plays numerous roles in both cells and non-cellular genetic material, and for lack of evidence to the contrary, it is generally accepted to form a random coil under physiological conditions.
However, chemical mapping data generated by the Eterna Massive Open Laboratory indicates that a poly (A) sequence of length seven or more, at pH 8.0 and MgCl concentrations of 10 mM, develops unexpected protection to selective 2′-hydroxyl acylation read out by primer extension (SHAPE) and dimethyl sulfate (DMS) chemical probing.
This protection first appears in poly(A) sequences of length 7 and grows to its maximum strength at length ~10. In a long poly(A) sequence, substitution of a single A by any other nucleotide disrupts the protection, but only for the 6 or so nucleotides on the 5′ side of the substitution.
The authors are grateful for pre-publication comments; please use https://docs.google.com/document/d/14972Q36IDTYMglwMXTOrqd4P9orQ6-P3bPbCuITdv6A.
Download the full article on biorxiv
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/05/14/281147
