Despite the importance of 3D structure to understand the myriad functions of RNAs in cells, most RNA molecules remain out of reach of crystallographic and NMR methods. However, certain structural information such as base pairing and some tertiary contacts can be determined readily for many RNAs by bioinformatics or relatively low cost experiments. Further, because RNA structure is highly modula...

Residues expected to play key roles in the stabilization of proteins [stabilizing residues (SRs)] are selected by combining several methods based mainly on the interactions of a given residue with its spatial, rather than its sequential neighborhood and by considering the evolutionary conservation of the residues. A residue is selected as a stabilizing residue if it has high surrounding hydroph...

Lipoxygenases (LOX) are a family of enzymes known to play a key role in the plant response related to osmotic, drought and highsalinity stress. Plants contain multiple isoforms of the lipoxygenase (LOX) enzyme which differs in terms of its substrate preference, optimal pH, product formation, and stability. Till date, no study has been done to focus on the structural and functional aspect of lip...

The protein structures determined by NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy) are not as detailed and accurate as those by X-ray crystallography and are often underdetermined due to the inadequate distance data available from NMR experiments. The uses of NMR-determined structures in such important applications as homology modeling and rational drug design have thus been severely limited. H...