The folding and unfolding of nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) are essential for these functions in cells. These
behaviours are also widely used for various technical applications using nucleic acids. To understand the biological
mechanism of nucleic acids function and design materials of nucleic acids, the biophysical approach using
thermodynamics is highly useful and important. The stability prediction of duplexes of nucleic acids have been developed
and widely used. However, it has been also noted that such predictions cannot be always adopted to prediction in various
solution conditions, especially the cellular conditions, because the concentrations of cations and cosolutes in the
intracellular condition termed molecular crowding are different from those in the standard experimental condition.
Moreover, the crowding condition in cells is spatiotemporally variable. Therefore, it is highly demanded to establish the
prediction method available in cellular conditions for the stability of various structures of nuclei acids. This article
reviews the biophysicochemical background predicting nucleic acids stability and our recent studies for the prediction
of these stability in the cellular conditions
Keywords:nucleic acids, thermodynamics, duplex, stability prediction, molecular crowding, intracellular condition
Publication Date: 2022-01-25