RNA can function as molecular chaperone for RNA folding
Zhi-Chao Lei,
Xue Yin,
Xinchang Wang,
Guoliang Ke,
Xiaoyu Cao,
Chunhai Fan,
Chaoyong James Yang,
Haojun Liang,
Zhong-Qun Tian
Affiliations
Zhi-Chao Lei
State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and iChEM, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
Xue Yin
Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry, iChEM, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
Xinchang Wang
State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and iChEM, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
Guoliang Ke
Molecular Sciences and Biomedicine Laboratory, State Key Laboratory for Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410012, China
Xiaoyu Cao
State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and iChEM, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
Chunhai Fan
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and Institute of Molecular Medicine, Renji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
Chaoyong James Yang
State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and iChEM, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China; Corresponding authors.
Haojun Liang
Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry, iChEM, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China; Corresponding authors.
Zhong-Qun Tian
State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and iChEM, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China; Corresponding authors.
RNAs can mimic the information storage, replication and catalysis functions of DNAs and proteins, providing physical evidence for the widely accepted RNA world hypothesis that RNA alone constitutes earlier life forms. However, the currently found molecular chaperones for correcting RNA folding are proteins, which poses a question on whether RNA itself can avoid misfolding in the absence of proteins. Here, we report two examples that RNA/ssDNA strands can serve as molecular chaperones to assist the folding of RNA/ssDNA structures with complex intramolecular interactions. We found that these RNA chaperones can disrupt the misfolded double-hairpin structures, assisting them to refold into native single-hairpin structures, which is a typical catalytical assembly called catassembly. The refolding rate was increased by at least three orders of magnitude. The identification that RNA can function as molecular chaperone for RNA folding may expand our understanding on RNA molecular chaperone and provides clues to rational design of catassembler.
