Structural Analyses of the Ribosome by Chemical Modification Methods

RNA molecules, both the bases and sugars, can be modified by specific chemicals. Ribonucleoside modification can be extremely informative with regard to both RNA structure and dynamics. This chapter describes past and current methods of performing structural analysis of RNA using chemical modification techniques. We explore both radioactive and nonradioactive methodologies, a variety of reagents available to probe for different types of information, and new methodologies that enable interrogation of large RNAs found in ribosomes and viruses.