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Charge transport in biomolecules is crucial for many biological and technological applications, including biomolecular electronics devices and biosensors. RNA has become the focus of research because of its importance in biomedicine, but its charge transport properties are not well understood. Here, we use the Scanning Tunneling Microscopy-assisted molecular break junction method to measure the electrical conductance of particular 5-base and 10-base single-stranded (ss) RNA sequences capable of base stacking. These ssRNA sequences show single-molecule conductance values around$$10^{-3}G_0$$${10}^{-3}{G}_0$($$G_0= 2e^2/h$$$G_0=2e^2/h$), while equivalent-length ssDNAs result in featureless conductance histograms. Circular dichroism (CD) spectra and MD simulations reveal the existence of extended ssRNA conformations versus folded ssDNA conformations, consistent with their different electrical behaviors. Computational molecular modeling and Machine Learning-assisted interpretation of CD data helped us to disentangle the structural and electronic factors underlying CT, thus explaining the observed electrical behavior differences. RNA with a measurable conductance corresponds to sequences with overall extended base-stacking stabilized conformations characterized by lower HOMO energy levels delocalized over a base-stacking mediating CT pathway. In contrast, DNA and a control RNA sequence without significant base-stacking tend to form closed structures and thus are incapable of efficient CT.

 

The search-and-capture model of spindle assembly has been a guiding principle for understanding prometaphase for decades. The computational model presented allows one to address two questions: how rapidly the microtubule–kinetochore connections are made, and how accurate these connections are. In most previous numerical simulations, the model geometry was drastically simplified. Using the CellDynaMo computational platform, we previously introduced a geometrically and mechanically realistic 3D model of the prometaphase mitotic spindle, and used it to evaluate thermal noise and microtubule kinetics effects on the capture of a single chromosome. Here, we systematically investigate how geometry and mechanics affect a spindle assembly’s speed and accuracy, including nuanced distinctions between merotelic, mero-amphitelic, and mero-syntelic chromosomes. We find that softening of the centromere spring improves accuracy for short chromosome arms, but accuracy disappears for long chromosome arms. Initial proximity of chromosomes to one spindle pole makes assembly accuracy worse, while initial chromosome orientation matters less. Chromokinesins, added onto flexible chromosome arms, allow modeling of the polar ejection force, improving a spindle assembly’s accuracy for a single chromosome. However, spindle space crowding by multiple chromosomes worsens assembly accuracy. Our simulations suggest that the complex microtubule network of the early spindle is key to rapid and accurate assembly. 

We introduce a Stochastic Reaction-Diffusion-Dynamics Model (SRDDM) for simulations of cellular mechanochemical processes with high spatial and temporal resolution. The SRDDM is mapped into the CellDynaMo package, which couples the spatially inhomogeneous reaction-diffusion master equation to account for biochemical reactions and molecular transport within the Langevin Dynamics (LD) framework to describe dynamic mechanical processes. This computational infrastructure allows the simulation of hours of molecular machine dynamics in reasonable wall-clock time. We apply SRDDM to test performance of the Search-and-Capture of mitotic spindle assembly by simulating, in three spatial dimensions, dynamic instability of elastic microtubules anchored in two centrosomes, movement and deformations of geometrically realistic centromeres with flexible kinetochores and chromosome arms. Furthermore, the SRDDM describes the mechanics and kinetics of Ndc80 linkers mediating transient attachments of microtubules to the chromosomal kinetochores. The rates of these attachments and detachments depend upon phosphorylation states of the Ndc80 linkers, which are regulated in the model by explicitly accounting for the reactions of Aurora A and B kinase enzymes undergoing restricted diffusion. We find that there is an optimal rate of microtubule-kinetochore detachments which maximizes the accuracy of the chromosome connections, that adding chromosome arms to kinetochores improve the accuracy by slowing down chromosome movements, that Aurora A and kinetochore deformations have a small positive effect on the attachment accuracy, and that thermal fluctuations of the microtubules increase the rates of kinetochore capture and also improve the accuracy of spindle assembly. 

RNA oligonucleotides are crucial for a range of biological functions and in many biotechnological applications. Herein, we measured, for the first time, the conductance of individual double-stranded (ds)RNA molecules and compared it with the conductance of single DNA : RNA hybrids. The average conductance values are similar for both biomolecules, but the distribution of conductance values shows an order of magnitude higher variability for dsRNA, indicating higher molecular flexibility of dsRNA. Microsecond Molecular Dynamics simulations explain this difference and provide structural insights into the higher stability of DNA : RNA duplex with atomic level of detail. The rotations of 2′-OH groups of the ribose rings and the bases in RNA strands destabilize the duplex structure by weakening base stacking interactions, affecting charge transport, and making single-molecule conductance of dsRNA more variable (dynamic disorder). The results demonstrate that a powerful combination of state-of-the-art biomolecular electronics techniques and computational approaches can provide valuable insights into biomolecules’ biophysics with unprecedented spatial resolution.