Modelling RNA folding under mechanical tension

Abstract

We investigate the thermodynamics and kinetics of RNA unfolding and refolding under mechanical tension. The hierarchical nature of RNA structure and the existence of thermodynamic parameters for base pair formation based on nearest-neighbour interactions allows modelling of sequence-dependent folding dynamics for any secondary structure. We calculate experimental observables such as the transition force for unfolding, the end-to-end distribution function and its variance, as well as kinetic information, for a representative RNA sequence and for a sequence containing two homopolymer segments: A.U and G.C.