Genome-wide search for coaxial helical stacking motifs

Motif finding in DNA, RNA and proteins plays an important role in life science research. In this paper, we present a computational approach to searching for RNA tertiary motifs in genomic sequences. Specifically, we describe a method, named CSminer, and show, as a case study, the application of CSminer to genome-wide search for coaxial helical stackings in RNA 3-way junctions. A coaxial helical stacking motif occurs in an RNA 3-way junction where two separate helical elements form a pseudocontiguous helix and provide thermodynamic stability to the RNA molecule as a whole. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.