RNA Structural Variability and Functional Versatility Challenges RNA Structural Modeling and Design

RNA's rising stardom is well-justified by its structural variability and functional versatility. Indeed, besides RNA's key role in the translational machinery, RNA is instrumental for the manipulation and regulation of genetic information. Because regulatory errors and altered RNA functions can trigger abnormal cellular events, RNA has also emerged as a strong drug target for treating a variety of human diseases. Of course, fundamental mechanistic knowledge of RNA folding, energetics, and kinetics is essential for understanding RNA's pathways into its many functional states and how these states are affected by ions, proteins, and other nucleic acid entities in the cellular milieu.

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