@article {Leeder099200, author = {W.-Matthias Leeder and Stephan Voskuhl and H. Ulrich G{\"o}ringer}, title = {The 2D-structure of the T. brucei pre-edited RPS12 mRNA is not affected by macromolecular crowding}, elocation-id = {099200}, year = {2017}, doi = {10.1101/099200}, publisher = {Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory}, abstract = {Mitochondrial transcript maturation in African trypanosomes requires RNA editing to convert nucleotide-deficient pre-mRNAs into translatable mRNAs. The different pre-mRNAs have been shown to adopt highly stable 2D-folds, however, it is not known whether these structures resemble the in vivo folds given the extreme {\textquotedblleft}crowding{\textquotedblright} conditions within the mitochondrion. Here we analyze the effects of macromolecular crowding on the structure of the mitochondrial RPS12 pre-mRNA. We use polyethylene glycol as a macromolecular cosolute and monitor the structure of the RNA globally and with nucleotide resolution. We demonstrate that crowding has no impact on the 2D-fold and we conclude that the MFE-structure in dilute solvent conditions represents a good proxy for the folding of the pre-mRNA in its mitochondrial solvent context.}, URL = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/01/09/099200}, eprint = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/01/09/099200.full.pdf}, journal = {bioRxiv} }