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Center for Nonlinear Studies |
The folding of RNA sequences into RNA structures can be viewed as an abstract mapping. This mapping exhibits remarkable properties with respect to evolutionary optimization of sequences via local point-mutations. In this talk we discuss some of these properties in detail using the combinatorially nontrivial RNA pseudoknot structures and RNA RNA interaction complexes as an example. We show how the existence of an ensemble of phenotypes can be used for localizing interation regions and that RNA pseudoknot structures have vast percolating neutral networks in sequence space facilitating (neutral) evolution.
Host: Stephan Eidenbenz, eidenben@lanl.gov