Statistical potentials for 3D structure evaluation: From proteins to RNAs

Structure evaluation is critical to in silico 3-dimensional structure predictions for biomacromolecules such as proteins and RNAs. For proteins, structure evaluation has been paid attention over three decades along with protein folding problem, and statistical potentials have been shown to be effective and efficient in protein structure prediction and evaluation. In recent two decades, RNA folding problem has attracted much attention and several statistical potentials have been developed for RNA structure evaluation, partially with the aid of the progress in protein structure prediction. In this review, we will firstly give a brief overview on the existing statistical potentials for protein structure evaluation. Afterwards, we will introduce the recently developed statistical potentials for RNA structure evaluation. Finally, we will emphasize the perspective on developing new statistical potentials for RNAs in the near future.