Motif independent identification of potential RNA G-quadruplexes by G4RNA screener

摘要

G-quadruplex structures in RNA molecules are known to have regulatory impacts in cells but are difficult to locate in the genome. The minimal requirements for G-quadruplex folding in RNA (G(a parts per thousandyen>3)N(1-7) G(a parts per thousandyen>3)N(1-7) G(a parts per thousandyen>3)N(1-7) G(a parts per thousandyen>3)) is being challenged by observations made on specific examples in recent years. The definition of potential G-quadruplex sequences has major repercussions on the observation of the structure since it introduces a bias. The canonical motif only describes a sub-population of the reported G-quadruplexes. To address these issues, we propose an RNA G-quadruplex prediction strategy that does not rely on a motif definition.