Spectrum of relaxation time scales for metastable RNA folding

✍ Scribed by Ariel Fernández

• Book ID: 103893783
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1990
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 502 KB
• Volume: 165
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0378-4371
• DOI: 10.1016/0378-4371(90)90004-c

✦ Synopsis

We investigate the universal (length-independent) behavior in time of the two-base-pair correlation, AQ, in the folding of a random uncorrelated RNA chain. As a starting point, we provide evidence supporting the existence of a relaxation time scale with a rate of divergence identical to the nonergodic relaxation time scale for spin glasses, as the thermodynamic limit is approached.

The analysis is carried out making use of a Monte Carlo simulation which computes nonequilibrium refolding events occurring in a random uncorrelated primary sequence as it is formed by sequential incorporation of nucleotides.

Our results on the universal behavior of AQ reveal the existence of a whole spectrum of relaxation time scales for folded states, each of these time scales diverging in the thermodynamic limit.