Why Can’t We Predict RNA Structure At Atomic Resolution?

No existing algorithm can start with arbitrary RNA sequences and return the precise three-dimensional structures that ensure their biological function. This chapter outlines current algorithms for automated RNA structure prediction (including our own FARNA–FARFAR), highlights their successes, and dissects their limitations, using a tetraloop and the sarcin/ricin motif as examples. The barriers to future advances are considered in light of three particular challenges: improving computational sampling, reducing reliance on experimentally solved structures, and avoiding coarse-grained representations of atomic-level interactions. To help meet these challenges and better understand the current state of the field, we propose an ongoing community-wide CASP-style experiment for evaluating the performance of current structure prediction algorithms.

• Publication year

  2011

• Venue

  arXiv: Biomolecules

• Publication date

  2011-03-15

• Fields of study

  Biology, Physics, Computer Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-25740-7_4arXiv 1103.3032
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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