COMP 30 |
| RNA-protein complexes are essential contributors to many important biological processes, including gene expression. An understanding of how proteins recognize RNA is needed to describe and control processes involving RNA-protein complexes. We are investigating the recognition of RNA by a set of proteins that contain an RNA recognition motif (RRM), which is one of the most common RNA-binding domains. The focus of this study is a particularly well-characterized system, the complex formed between the N-terminal RRM of the U1A protein and stem loop 2 of U1 snRNA. We have investigated the binding and dynamics of wild type and mutant U1A proteins and stem loop 2 RNAs using both experimental and computational approaches in order to understand and predict local and long-range energetic contributors to binding affinity and specificity. We have focused in particular on the roles highly conserved aromatic amino acids play in determining complex stability. |
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Protein-Nucleic Acid Interactions: Experimental and Modeling Analysis
8:30 AM-12:15 PM, Sunday, August 19, 2007 BCEC -- 156B, Oral
Division of Computers in Chemistry |