Liao Lab solves RNA cryo-EM structures at near-atomic resolution

RNA cryo-EM structures at near-atomic resolution

Structural information is crucial for understanding the folding and function of diverse RNA molecules. While cryo-EM holds great potential in seeing the details of RNAs, their small size and flexible conformation impose a formidable challenge for obtaining high-resolution cryo-EM structures.

Liao lab and Dr. Peng Yin’s lab at the Wyss Institute present a nanoarchitectural engineering strategy for efficient structural determination of RNA-only structures using cryo-EM. This strategy, termed ROCK (RNA oligomerization-enabled cryo-EM via installing kissing loops), increases the size and mitigates the conformational flexibility of RNAs, thus greatly facilitating the structural studies of RNAs.

Read the paper here.