StructureFold2: Bringing chemical probing data into the computational fold of RNA structural analysis

The secondary structure of an RNA is often implicit to its function. Recently, various high-throughput RNA structure probing techniques have been developed to elucidate important RNA structure–function relationships genome-wide. These techniques produce unwieldy experimental data sets that require evaluation with unique computational pipelines. Herein, we present StructureFold2, a user-friendly set of analysis tools that makes precise data processing and detailed downstream analyses of such data sets both available and practical. StructureFold2 processes high-throughput reads sequenced from libraries prepared after experimental probing for reverse transcription (RT) stops generated by chemical modification of RNA at solvent accessible residues. This pipeline is able to analyze reads generated from a variety of structure-probing chemicals (e.g. DMS, glyoxal, SHAPE). Notably, StructureFold2 offers a new fully featured suite of utilities and tools to guide a user through multiple types of analyses. A particular emphasis is placed on analyzing the reactivity patterns of transcripts, complementing their use as folding restraints for predicting RNA secondary structure. StructureFold2 is hosted as a Github repository and is available at (https://github.com/StructureFold2/StructureFold2).