Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
Using single-molecule techniques, Liphardt et al. have analyzed the folding and unfolding reactions of a series of nested RNA molecules. In this Perspective, Fernandez et al. discuss the surprising observation that the smallest of these RNAs, a simple hairpin structure, undergoes an all-or-nothing transition between the folded and the unfolded state, rather than the RNA strands unzipping.
J. M. Fernandez and A. F. Oberhauser are in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Mayo Foundation, Rochester, MN 55905, USA. S. Chu is in the Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-4060, USA.
The editors suggest the following Related Resources on Science sites:
In Science Magazine
REPORTS
Jan Liphardt, Bibiana Onoa, Steven B. Smith, Ignacio Tinoco, Jr., and Carlos Bustamante (27 April 2001) Science292 (5517), 733.
[DOI: 10.1126/science.1058498] |Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »|Supplemental Data »
THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Direct measurement of the full, sequence-dependent folding landscape of a nucleic Acid..
M. T. Woodside, P. C. Anthony, W. M. Behnke-Parks, K. Larizadeh, D. Herschlag, and S. M. Block (2006)
Science
314, 1001-1004
|Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »
Thermodynamic and Kinetic Aspects of RNA Pulling Experiments.
