Applications of isothermal titration calorimetry in RNA biochemistry and biophysics

Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) has been applied to the study of proteins for many years. Its use in the biophysical analysis of RNAs has lagged significantly behind its use in protein biochemistry, however, in part because of the relatively large samples required. As the instrumentation has become more sensitive, the ability to obtain high quality data on RNA folding and RNA ligand interactions has improved dramatically. This review provides an overview of the ITC experiment and describes recent work on RNA systems that have taken advantage of its versatility for the study of small molecule binding, protein binding, and the analysis of RNA folding. (C) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.