Predicting RNA-RNA interactions using RNAstructure

Abstract

RNA-RNA binding is a required step for many regulatory and catalytic processes in the cell. Identifying RNA-RNA hybridization sites is challenging because of the competition between intramolecular and intermolecular structure formation. A complete picture of RNA-RNA binding includes an understanding of single-stranded folding and binding site accessibility, and is strongly concentration-dependent. This chapter provides guidance for using RNAstructure to predict RNA-RNA binding sites and RNA-RNA structures, utilizing free energy minimization and partition function calculations. RNAstructure is freely available at http://rna.urmc.rochester.edu/RNAstructure.html.