NEUTRAL NETWORKS OF INTERACTING RNA SECONDARY STRUCTURES

Camille Stephan-Otto Attolini () and Peter F. Stadler ()
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Camille Stephan-Otto Attolini: Institut für Theoretische Chemie, Universität Wien, Währingerstraße 17, A-1090 Wien, Austria
Peter F. Stadler: Lehrstuhl für Bioinformatik, Institut für Informatik, Universität Leipzig, Kreuzstraße 7a, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany;

Advances in Complex Systems (ACS), 2005, vol. 08, issue 02n03, 275-283

Abstract: RNA molecules interact by forming inter-molecular base pairs that compete with the intra-molecular base pairs of their secondary structures. We investigate the patterns of neutral mutations in RNAs whose function is the interaction with other RNAs, i.e. theco-foldingwith one or more other RNA molecules. We find that (i) the degree of neutrality is much smaller in interacting RNAs compared to RNAs that just have to coform to a single externally prescribed target structure, and (ii) strengthening this contraint to the conservation of the co-folded structure with two or more partners essentially eliminates neutrality. It follows that RNAs whose function depends on the formation of a specific interaction complex with a target RNA molecule will evolve much more slowly than RNAs with a function depending only on their own structure.

Keywords: RNA secondary structures; co-folding; neutral mutations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
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DOI: 10.1142/S0219525905000427

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