Learning to fold a random RNA chain

✍ Scribed by Ariel Fernández; Alejandro Belinky

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 347 KB
• Volume: 212
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0009-2614
• DOI: 10.1016/0009-2614(93)87130-u

✦ Synopsis

We implement a neural network associating a two-state unit to each pair of bases in a random RNA sequence. A Watson-Crick base-pair becomes the structural realization of an activated unit. Accordingly, a secondary structure is associated to a neural pattern. The coupling tensor is constructed taking into account the cooperativity principles of secondary structure formation, including nucleation effects for initiation of intra-chain duplex formation and stacking of base pairs. The dynamics of the exploration of metastable patterns by the network is shown to follow a random energy model. This model has already been supported experimentally and has been established as a paradigm to explain the initial stages of exploration of conformation space by a random RNA molecule.