Approaches to characterize structural properties of RNA
- Autores: Riccardo Delli Ponti
- Directores de la Tesis: Gian Gaetano Tartaglia (dir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Pompeu Fabra ( España ) en 2019
- Idioma: inglés
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Eleonora Leucci (presid.), Andrea Cerase (secret.), Juan Antonio Gabaldón Estevan (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Biomedicina por la Universidad Pompeu Fabra
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: TDX
- Resumen
The secondary structure of an RNA molecule is fundamental for its function. However, structural conservation and the structure of RNA in vivo are still poorly understood. Data from recent high-throughput experiments can provide new insights, but they have not yet been systematically exploited. The aim of my doctoral studies was to exploit these experimental data to develop computational approaches for discovering and analyzing structural properties of RNA. I developed two algorithms: CROSS predicts the secondary structure propensity profile of an RNA, and CROSSalign discovers structural similarities among different RNAs. In addition, I studied the effect of the presence of protein binding motifs on the prediction of the RNA structure in vivo and investigated how the propensity of RNAs to bind to proteins could be exploited to create a predictive tool. The suite of tools that I developed opens new possibilities for studying the structural properties of long RNA molecules and for investigating structural conservation in large-scale analyses.
