CARD - A DRAWING TOOL FOR RNA SECONDARY STRUCTURE MODELS

A graphical editor was developed to create publication-quality represe ntations of RNA secondary structure models. A user-defined model can b e gradually assembled from structural elements such as helix segments and loops. The type of structural element to be drawn is chosen from a menu. Its nucleotide sequence has to be entered from the keyboard. Af terwards, drawings can be manipulated by moving, deleting, rotating, c opying or changing the structural elements separately. An example of a secondary structure model is given for a complete 18S rRNA molecule.