A Structural Potential of Rare Trinucleotide Repeat Tracts in RNA.

Among types of trinucleotide repeats, there is some disproportion in the frequency of their occurrence in the human exome. This research presents new data describing the folding and thermodynamic stability of short, tandem RNA repeats of 23 types, focusing on the rare, yet poorly analyzed ones. UV-melting experiments included the presence of PEG or potassium and magnesium ions to determine their effect on the stability of RNA repeats structures.

Influence of mismatched and bulged nucleotides on SNP-preferential RNase H cleavage of RNA-antisense gapmer heteroduplexes.

This study focused on determining design rules for gapmer-type antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), that can differentiate cleavability of two SNP variants of RNA in the presence of ribonuclease H based on the mismatch type and position in the heteroduplex. We describe the influence of structural motifs formed by several arrangements of multiple mismatches (various types of mismatches and their position within the ASO/target RNA duplex) on RNase H cleavage selectivity of five different SNP types. The targets were mRNA fragments of APP, SCA3, SNCA and SOD1 genes, carrying C-to-G, G-to-C, G-to-A, A-to-G and C-to-U substitutions.

Correction: A Tandem Oligonucleotide Approach for SNP-Selective RNA Degradation Using Modified Antisense Oligonucleotides.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

A Tandem Oligonucleotide Approach for SNP-Selective RNA Degradation Using Modified Antisense Oligonucleotides.

Antisense oligonucleotides have been studied for many years as a tool for gene silencing. One of the most difficult cases of selective RNA silencing involves the alleles of single nucleotide polymorphisms, in which the allele sequence is differentiated by a single nucleotide. A new approach to improve the performance of allele selectivity for antisense oligonucleotides is proposed.

Structural determinants for alternative splicing regulation of the MAPT pre-mRNA.

Alternative splicing at the MAPT gene exon 10 yields similar levels of the 3R and 4R tau protein isoforms. (1) The presence of mutations, particularly in exon 10 and intron 10-11, changes the quantity of tau isoforms. Domination each of the isoform yields tau protein aggregation and frontotemporal dementia and Parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17 (FTDP-17).