20th Annual Student Research Conference
Science
Effects of 3’ Dangling Nucleotides on the Stability of siRNA-Like Models
Ananth K. Sezhiyan
Dr. Maria Nagan, Faculty Mentor
Small interfering RNA (siRNA) is double stranded RNA with 19 to 21 base pairs in length composed of two 3’ overhanging dangling nucleotides and terminal 5’ phosphates. These RNAs are typically involved in mRNA degradation and chromatin modification. A previous study indicates that the identity of the two overhanging 3’ nitrogenous bases greatly influence the stability of the siRNA (O’Toole et al., RNA, 2005, 11, 512). Using a core duplex of two guanines coupled with two cytosines (GGCC), results seem to indicate that the siRNA is most stable when the first and second bases of the 3’overhangs are a purine and a pyrimidine respectively. In this study, 16 siRNA model duplexes have been simulated computationally. Entropic and enthalpic contributions to differential free energies of stability between duplexes are being calculated.
Keywords: siRNA, molecule stability, computational
Topic(s):Chemistry
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: 8-5
Location: OP Lobby
Time: 4:15 pm