The inherent dynamism of ribonucleic acids (RNAs) makes them challenging targets in structural biology. Native ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IM-MS) techniques, such as collision induced unfolding (CIU), provide complementary methods for probing these dynamic biomolecules. However, the application of CIU to RNAs remains underexplored and differs markedly from protein CIU. Understanding the gas-phase unfolding mechanisms present in RNA CIU may enable us to better leverage CIU for applications in nucleic acid engineering, ligand screening, and structural elucidation. We suspect that an evaluation of RNA secondary-structure motifs will allow us to correlate how changes to these substructures affect global CIU patterns.
For more information, please refer to Anders, A., et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2024, 146 (7) and Anders, A., et al. J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. 2025, 36 (7).
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