Person:
Thelot, Francois

Profile Picture

Email Address

AA Acceptance Date

Birth Date

Research Projects

Organizational Units

Job Title

Last Name

Thelot

First Name

Francois

Name

Thelot, Francois

Filters

20221

Settings

Author's Publications: search.filters.isAuthorOfPublication.0a3edcca-9162-4599-86ea-4f835ecb7f0e

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Publication
    Sub-3 Å Cryo-EM Structure of RNA Enabled by Engineered Homomeric Self-Assembly
    (Nature Portfolio, 2022-05-02) Liu, Di; Thelot, Francois; Liao, Maofu; Yin, Peng
    Though many functional RNAs fold into intricate and precise 3D architectures, it is difficult to acquire their high-resolution structures. Herein, we present a nanoarchitectural strategy for efficient structural determination of RNA-only structures using single-particle cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM). This strategy, termed RNA oligomerization-enabled cryo-EM via installing kissing-loops (ROCK), involves RNA construct engineering to install kissing-loop sequences onto functionally nonessential stems for the homomeric self-assembly into closed nanoarchitectures with multiplied molecular weights and mitigated structural flexibility. ROCK enables the cryo-EM reconstruction of the Tetrahymena group I intron at 2.98 Å resolution overall (2.85 Å for the core), allowing de novo model building of the complete RNA including the previously unknown peripheral domains. ROCK is also applied to two smaller RNAs to produce modest-resolution maps, revealing the conformational change of the Azoarcus group I intron and the bound ligand in the FMN riboswitch. Our work unleashes the largely unexplored potential of cryo-EM in RNA structural studies.