Badu, Shyam; Melnik, Roderick; Prabhakar, Sanjay
Studying Properties of RNA Nanotubes via Molecular Dynamics
NANOSENSORS, BIOSENSORS, AND INFO-TECH SENSORS AND SYSTEMS 2015, 9434 Art. No. 94340E, 2015

RNA molecules are very flexible in nature. This feature allows us to build various motifs which are essential in bionanotechnological applications. Based on our earlier developed models of RNA nanoclusters, in this contribution we analyze the structure and properties of RNA nanotubes in physiological solutions at different concentrations. Our major tool here is the molecular dynamics (MD) method that was implemented by using the NAMD and VMD packages, with which we study the structural and thermal properties of the nanotubes in physiological solutions. In particular, we have analyzed such characteristics as the Root Mean Square Deviation (RMSD), the radius of gyration, the number of hydrogen bonds per base pairs, and the radial distribution function (RDF) of a RNA nanotube at different concentrations of the physiological solution. Furthermore, the number of Na-23(+) and Cl-35(-) ions around the nanotubes within the distance of 5 angstrom at two different concentrations has also been analyzed in detail. It has been found that the number of ions accumulated around the nanotubes within the particular distance is growing by small amount while the concentrations of the Na-23(+) and Cl-35(-) ions are substantially increased.

DOI:10.1117/12.2087444

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