Rapid Determination of RNA Accessible Sites by Surface Plasmon Resonance Detection of Hybridization to DNA arrays

摘要

RNA accessible sites are the regions in an RNA molecule, which are available for hybridization with complementary DNA or RNA molecules. The identification of these accessible sites is a critical first step in identifying antisense-mediated gene suppression sites, as well as in a variety of other RNA-based analysis methods. Here, we present a rapid, hybridization-based, label-free method of identifying RNA accessible sites with surface plasmon resonance imaging (SPRi) on in situ synthesized oligonucleotide arrays prepared on carbon-on-metal substrates. The accessible sites of three pre-miRNAs, miRNA precursors of ~75 nt in length, were determined by hybridizing the RNA molecules to RNA-specific tiling arrays. An array comprised of all possible 6mer oligonucleotide sequences was also utilized in this work, offering a universal platform capable of studying RNA molecules in a high throughput manner.