Metal Ion-Based RNA Cleavage as a Structural Probe

It is well established that many metal ions accelerate the spontaneous degradation of RNA. This property has been exploited in several ways to garner information about RNA structure, especially in regards to the location of site-specifically bound metal ions, the presence of defined structural motifs, and the occurrence of conformational changes in structured RNAs. In this chapter, we review this information, briefly giving strengths and limitations for each of these approaches. Finally, we provide a general protocol to perform metal ion-mediated cleavage of RNA.