Technique Development for Probing RNA Structure In Vivo and Genome-Wide

How organisms perceive and respond to their surroundings is one of the great questions in biology. It is clear that RNA plays key roles in sensing. Cellular and environmental cues that RNA responds to include temperature, ions, metabolites, and biopolymers. Recent advances in next-generation sequencing and in vivo chemical probing have provided unprecedented insights into RNA folding in vivo and genome-wide. Patterns of chemical reactivity have implicated control of gene expression by RNA and aided prediction of RNA structure. Central to these advances has been development of molecular biological and chemical techniques. Key advances are improvements in the quality, cost, and throughput of library preparation; availability of a wider array of chemicals for probing RNA structure in vivo; and robustness and user friendliness of data analysis. Insights from probing transcriptomes and future directions are provided.