The expediency of RNA folding as revealed by the maximization in information content

Abstract

A stochastic process rooted in step-by-step minimization of conformational entropy loss is used to generate biologically relevant RNA folding pathways in a statistical ensemble of molecules. This process determines a time-dependent information content which is used as a marker for the steps that make folding robust and expeditive. For real RNA species, the amount of information generated is shown to reach its absolute maximum within the experimentally relevant timescale, well below the thermodynamic limit of ergodic time. Folding is shown to become deterministic after the information content has reached its global minimum.