Skip to main content

RNA Consensus Structure Prediction With RNAalifold

  • Protocol
Comparative Genomics

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology™ ((MIMB,volume 395))

Summary

The secondary structure of most functional RNA molecules is strongly conserved in evolution. Prediction of these conserved structures is therefore of particular interest when studying noncoding RNAs. Moreover, structure predictions on the basis of several sequences produce much more accurate results than energy directed folding of single sequences.

The RNAalifold program predicts the consensus structure for a set of aligned sequences taking into account both thermodynamic stability and sequence covariation. In this contribution, we provide a tutorial on how to install and use RNAalifold, as well as a guide on how to interpret the results.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Protocol
USD 49.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Gutell, R. R., Lee, J. C., and Cannone, J. J. (2002) The accuracy of ribosomal RNA comparative structure models. Curr. Opin. Struct. Biol. 12, 301–310.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Hofacker, I., Fekete, M., and Stadler, P. (2002) Secondary structure prediction for aligned RNA sequences. J. Mol. Biol. 319, 1059–1066.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Knudsen, B. and Hein, J. (2003) Pfold: RNA secondary structure prediction using stochastic context-free grammars. Nucl. Acids Res. 31, 3423–3428.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Siebert, S. and Backofen, R. (2005) MARNA: multiple alignment and consensus structure prediction of RNAs based on sequence structure comparisons. Bioinformatics 21, 3352–3359.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Höchsmann, M., Töller, T., Giegerich, R., and Kurtz, S. (2003) Local similarity in RNA secondary structures. Proc. of the Computational Systems Bioinformatics Conference, Stanford, CA, August 2003 (CSB 2003), pp. 159–168.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Sankoff, D. (1985) Simultaneous solution of the RNA folding, alignment, and proto-sequence problems. SIAM J. Appl. Math. 45, 810–825.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Gardner, P. P. and Giegerich, R. (2004) A comprehensive comparison of comparative RNA structure prediction approaches. BMC Bioinformatic 5, 140.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Mathews, D., Sabina, J., Zuker, M., and Turner, H. (1999) Expanded sequence dependence of thermodynamic parameters provides robust prediction of RNA secondary structure. J. Mol. Biol. 288, 911–940.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Zuker, M. and Stiegler, P. (1981) Optimal computer folding of larger RNA sequences using thermodynamics and auxiliary information. Nucleic Acids Res. 9, 133–148.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Doshi, K., Cannone, J., Cobaugh, C., and Gutell, R. (2004) Evaluation of the suitability of free-energy minimization using nearest-neighbor energy parameters for RNA secondary structure prediction. BMC Bioinformatics 5, 105.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Gardner, P. P., Wilm, A., and Washietl, S. (2005) A benchmark of multiple sequence alignment programs upon structural RNAs. Nucleic Acids Res. 33, 2433–2439.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Freyhult, E., Moulton, V., and Gardner, P. (2005) Predicting RNA structure using mutual information. Appl. Bioinformatics 4, 53–59.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Hofacker, I. L., Priwitzer, B., and Stadler, P. F. (2004) Prediction of locally stable RNA secondary structures for genome-wide surveys. Bioinformatics 20, 186–190.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Washietl, S. and Hofacker, I. L. (2004) Consensus folding of aligned sequences as a new measure for the detection of functional RNAs by comparative genomics. J. Mol. Biol. 342, 19–39.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Witwer, C., Hofacker, I. L., and Stadler, P. F. (2004) Prediction of consensus RNA secondary structures including pseudoknots. IEEE/ACM Trans. Comp. Biol. Bioinf. 1, 65–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Hull Havgaard, J., Lyngsø, R., Stormo, G., and Gorodkin, J. (2005) Pairwise local structural alignment of RNA sequences with sequence similarity less than 40%. Bioinformatics 21, 1815–1824.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Mathews, D. and Turner, D. (2002) Dynalign: an algorithm for finding the secondary structure common to two RNA sequences. J. Mol. Biol. 317, 191–203.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Holmes, I. (2005) Accelerated probabilistic inference of RNA structure evolution. BMC Bioinformatics 6, 73.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Hofacker, I. L., Bernhart, S. H. F., and Stadler, P. F. (2004) Alignment of RNA base pairing probability matrices. Bioinformatics 20, 2222–2227.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2007 Humana Press Inc.

About this protocol

Cite this protocol

Hofacker, I.L. (2007). RNA Consensus Structure Prediction With RNAalifold. In: Bergman, N.H. (eds) Comparative Genomics. Methods in Molecular Biology™, vol 395. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-514-5_33

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-514-5_33

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-58829-693-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-59745-514-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

Publish with us

Policies and ethics