This week, I noticed that a collection of servers, which can predict the shapes of RNA molecules, have been upgraded, and their new website looks great.
Paste any RNA sequence into the University of Vienna RNA Fold form and it will respond with a wealth of information -- including a multicolor diagram.
RNA is best known for its ability to carry the recipes for proteins around within cells, but sometimes the stringy molecules get tangled up into special shapes, which allow them to cause chemical reactions, activate the production of proteins, or stick to things like antibodies.
Ribozymes are RNA molecules that can catalyze chemical reactions. Many scientists believe that these molecules predated DNA and enzymes in early life on Earth. That hypothesis is often called the RNA World, and should pique the attention of evolution and astrobiology buffs.
__ Riboswitches__ can regulate the expression of genes, which means they can control which proteins are made by a cell at any given time.
Aptamers can recognize a particular chemical and stick to it. One highly-modified aptamer, pegaptanib, sticks to and inactivates a molecule which causes blood vessels to grow. It is squirted into the eyeballs of people with macular degeneration as a treatment for the blindness-causing disease.
If you want to play around with this spiffy new tool, type a random string of the letters C, G, A, and U into the form and and see what happens. Those letters represent the four nucleotides which are the building blocks of an RNA molecule. Perhaps you will discover something with an interesting structure!
Image: The secondary structure of an an RNA molecule as predicted by the Vienna RNAfold web server.
