| Abstract: | Gene mutations influence the folding kinetics of hepatitis delta virus(HDV) ribozyme. In this work, we study the effect of the double mutation on the folding kinetics of HDV ribozyme. By using the master equation method combined with RNA folding free energy landscape, we predict the folding kinetics of C13A:G82U and A16U:U79A mutated HDV sequences. Their folding pathways are identified by recursively searching the states with high net flux-in(out) population starting from the native state. The results indicate that the folding kinetics of C13A:G82U mutation sequence is bi-phasic, which is similar to the wild type(wt HDV) sequence. While the folding kinetics of A16U:U79A mutation sequence is mono-phasic, it quickly folds to the native state in 30 s. Thus, the folding kinetics of double mutated HDV ribozyme depends on the mutation sites. |
