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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2023.11.29.568956

Tradeoffs in the Design of RNA Thermometers

Gola, K. K.·Patel, A.·Sen, S.
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Abstract

The synthesis of RNA thermometers is aimed at achieving temperature responses with desired thresholds and sensitivities. Although previous works have generated thermometers with a variety of thresholds and sensitivities as well as guidelines for design, possible constraints in the achievable thresholds and sensitivities remain unclear. We addressed this issue using a two-state model and its variants, as well as melt profiles generated from thermodynamic computations. In the two-state model, we found that the threshold was inversely proportional to the sensitivity, in the case of a fixed energy difference between the two states. Notably, this constraint could persist in variations of the two-state model with sequentially unfolding states and branched parallel pathways. Furthermore, the melt profiles generated from a library of thermometers exhibited a similar constraint. These results should inform the design of RNA thermometers as well as other responses that are mediated in a similar fashion.

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Gola, K. K., Patel, A., Sen, S.. 2023-11-30. Tradeoffs in the Design of RNA Thermometers. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.11.29.568956

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