Statistical Analysis of RNA Backbone

E. Hershkovitz, G. Sapiro, A. Tannenbaum, L.D. Williams
2006 IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology & Bioinformatics  
Local conformation is an important determinant of RNA catalysis and binding. The analysis of RNA conformation is particularly difficult due to the large number of degrees of freedom (torsion angles) per residue. Proteins, by comparison, have many few degrees of freedom per residue. In this work we use and extend classical tools from statistics and signal processing to search for clusters in RNA conformational space. Results are reported both for scalar analysis, where each torsion angle is
more » ... ately studied, and for vectorial analysis, where several angles are simultaneously clustered. Adapting techniques from optimal quantization to the RNA structure, we find torsion angle clusters and RNA conformational motifs. We validate the technique using well known conformational motifs and show how the simultaneous study of the total torsion angle space leads to the discovery of new motifs. The proposed technique is fully automatic and based on well-defined optimality criteria. £
doi:10.1109/tcbb.2006.13 pmid:17048391 pmcid:PMC2811324 fatcat:mzczarmtk5hmrfk76gbt334yey