On November 1, 2021, Ren Aiming's laboratory published a paper in Nature Chemical Biology to reveal the structure of the new RNA fluorescent aptamer Pepper and the ligand recognition mechanism

On November 1 , 2021 , Ren Aiming's research group at Zhejiang University and Yang Yi's research group from East China University of Science and Technology jointly published a research paper entitled "Structure-based investigation of fluorogenic Pepper aptamer" in Nature Chemical Biology , reporting a new type of RNA fluorescence aptamer.

RNA molecules have important biological functions in organisms and they have very complex dynamic changes

HBC (( 4- (( 2- hydroxyethyl) (methyl) amino) - benzylidene) - cyanophenyl acetonitrile) is based on a green fluorescent protein GFP fluorophore HBI ( 4- hydroxy benzylidene-imidazolidinone ) A new dye ligand developed ( Figure 1A )

The overall structure of the Pepper-HBC complex is like a tuning fork, including three double helices P1 , P2, and P3 , and is connected by three Junction regions J1/2 , J2/1 and J3/2 , ( Figure 1-C, D )

This research provides a structural basis for further optimizing the sequence of Pepper aptamers and designing dye molecules with better photochemical properties, and also promotes its application in live cell RNA imaging technology

This research work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 32022039 , 31870810 , 91940302 , 91640104 ), Zhejiang Outstanding Youth Fund ( LR19C050003 ) and Zhejiang University Start-up Fund

Attachment: Our laboratory has long focused on the research of advanced structures of RNA molecules (nuclear switches, ribozymes, nucleic acid aptamers, etc.

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