A folding algorithm for extended RNA secondary structures

Motivation: RNA secondary structure contains many non-canonical base pairs of different pair families. Successful prediction of these structural features leads to improved secondary structures with applications in tertiary structure prediction and simultaneous folding and alignment. Results: We present a theoretical model capturing both RNA pair families and extended secondary structure motifs with shared nucleotides using 2-diagrams. We accompany this model with a number of programs for parameter optimization and structure prediction. Availability: All sources (optimization routines, RNA folding, RNA evaluation, extended secondary structure visualization) are published under the GPLv3 and available at www.tbi.univie.ac.at/software/rnawolf/. Contact: choener@tbi.univie.ac.at