Figure 3.

Conformations of tP5abc can be elucidated by comparing measured SAXS profiles with those computed from selected groups of MD derived structures. A large potential pool of tP5abc states is generated by identifying the lowest free energy path between the unfolded and native tP5abc conformations, and considering states along and orthogonal to this path. The underlying RNA landscape can be assessed by examining sets of structures selected from this large pool whose computed and summed scattering profiles best fit the experimental data.