Matteo Comin, University of Padova, Padova Italy

Protein-RNA interaction
Protein–RNA interactions are crucial for many cellular processes, such as gene expression and regulation as well as protein synthesis. Understanding and predicting such interactions at the atomic level are crucial for our ability to interfere with malfunctioning processes in disease. Consequently, analysis of the protein–RNA interactions and RNA binding sites has been a field of intensive research. In this tutorial we will discuss the connections between the widely studied prediction of protein-ligand binding sites and the recent analysis of protein-RNA interactions. Current methodologies based on inter-atomic and geometrical properties will be presented.

References:
Shulman-Peleg A, Shatsky M, Nussinov R, Wolfson HJ. Prediction of interacting single-stranded RNA bases by protein-binding patterns. J Mol Biol. 2008 May 30;379(2):299-316.

N Morozova, J Allers, Y Shamoo. ProteinRNA interactions: exploring binding patterns with a three-dimensional superposition analysis of high resolution structures by: Bioinformatics, Vol. 22, No. 22. (15 November 2006), pp. 2746-2752.