Computer programme statistically predicting folding structure of nucleic acids of any length: and examples of calculation.

We devised a computer programme which calculates "folding probabilities" of single stranded nucleic acids of any length which we want to analyze. The "folding probability" defined by equation (7) (see below) reflects approximate probability of generation of intrastrand annealing in a given region. With this programme, we analyzed Escherichia coli 23S ribosomal RNA, and cucumber mosaic virus RNA segment 3. The calculated data of Escherichia coli 23S ribosomal RNA agreed approximately well with Klein et al.'s electronmicroscopical data [7].