In this issue of Molecular Cell, Schärfen et al. describe an advanced RNA structure-probing technology called CoSTseq that enables transcriptome-wide detection of nascent RNA base pairing during transcription in living yeast cells.

Schärfen et al. develop a method to measure the structure of nascent RNAs during their synthesis by RNA polymerases. Base pairing occurs rapidly in cells, revealing the strong regulatory potential of ...

An RNA′s catalytic, regulatory, or coding potential depends on RNA structure formation. Because base pairing occurs during transcription, early structural states can govern RNA processing events and d...