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Energy Function 2 (efn2)

efn2 (Energy Function 2) is used to calculate the folding free energy change of a structure or structures in a CT file. The output from efn2 can be either a simple list of energies or a detailed breakdown of the calculation. efn2 does not support structures that contain pseudoknots.

USAGE: efn2 <ct file> <energy file> [options]

Required parameters:

<ct file> The name of a file containing the input structure in CT format.
<energy file> The energy file to which output is written.
The energy file can be written in one of two forms:
  1. Simple List
    Lists free energy for each structure, lowest first.
  2. Thermodynamic details (if -w, -W, --writedetails is specified as described below)
    Writes the details of every substructure in each structure, and corresponding free energy of each.

Options which don't require added values:

-d, -D, --DNA Specify that the sequence is DNA, and DNA parameters are to be used.
Default is to use RNA parameters.
-h, -H, --help Display the usage details message.
-p, -P, --print Print the output file to standard output.
This won't override default behavior of writing to a file.
Thermodynamic files (if written) are not printed, even if this option is specified, because they can be very large.
-w, -W, --writedetails Write a thermodynamic details file.
The thermodynamic details file replaces a standard output (list) file.

Options which require added values:

-t, -T, --temperature Specify the temperature at which the free energy free should be calculated in Kelvin.
Default is 310.15 K, which is 37 degrees C.

References:

  1. Reuter, J.S. and Mathews, D.H.
    "RNAstructure: software for RNA secondary structure prediction and analysis."
    BMC Bioinformatics, 11:129. (2010).
  2. Mathews, D.H., Sabina, J., Zuker, M. and Turner, D.H.
    "Expanded sequence dependence of thermodynamic parameters provides improved prediction of RNA secondary structure."
    J. Mol. Biol., 288:911-940. (1999).