Translational and rotational diffusion of short ribonucleic acids

Inevitable precondition for ribonucleic acids to regulate gene expression and to perform gene editing is diffusion. Free three-dimensional translational diffusion velocity of RNA of up to 200 nucleotides could be predicted with high accuracy by the empirical model D = 4.58 10-10N-0.39 m2s-1. Furthermore, the biological function of ribonucleic acids is determined by rotational diffusion. In the presented work, an empirical model is derived applying atom-level shell-modeling of electron density maps, Dr = 1.62 109 N-1.20 s-1, to predict the rotational diffusion coefficient of short ribonucleic acids based on the polymer size.(c) 2023 Published by Elsevier Inc.

Automated summary

Diffusion is an inevitable prerequisite for ribonucleic acids to regulate gene expression and perform gene editing. The empirical models derived in this study accurately predict the three-dimensional translational and rotational diffusion velocities of RNA.