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Updated: Feb 26, 2026

Probing RNA Structure with Dimethyl Sulfate Mutational Profiling with Sequencing In Vitro and in Cells
Published on: December 9, 2022
Adaptation of mRNA structure to control protein folding
Guilhem Faure1, Aleksey Y Ogurtsov1, Svetlana A Shabalina1
1a National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine , National Institutes of Health , Bethesda , MD , USA.
Abstract:
Comparison of mRNA and protein structures shows that highly structured mRNAs typically encode compact protein domains suggesting that mRNA structure controls protein folding. This function is apparently performed by distinct structural elements in the mRNA, which implies 'fine tuning' of mRNA structure under selection for optimal protein folding. We find that, during evolution, changes in the mRNA folding energy follow amino acid replacements, reinforcing the notion of an intimate connection between the structures of a mRNA and the protein it encodes, and the double encoding of protein sequence and folding in the mRNA.
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