Probing RNA Structure in Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation Using SHAPE-MaP
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Updated: Feb 2, 2026

RNA Secondary Structure Prediction Using High-throughput SHAPE
Published on: May 31, 2013
Erin M Langdon1, Amy S Gladfelter2
1Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States.
Abstract:
RNA is an integral component of many biological condensates. A variety of features of RNAs are linked to their function in biological phase separation. Length and negative charge provide fairly generic chemical inputs that drive condensation while sequence has been shown to influence both the molecular identity and biophysical properties of droplets. mRNA sequence guides the secondary structure of the polymers and RNA secondary structure licenses-specific RNA-RNA interactions and the recruitment of RNA-binding proteins. Here, we describe a method for directly probing the structure of mRNAs in the context of RNP-droplets formed via LLPS.
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