Determination of riboswitch structures: Light at the end of the tunnel? Journal Article
| Author: | Serganov, A. |
| Article Title: | Determination of riboswitch structures: Light at the end of the tunnel? |
| Abstract: | Riboswitches are gene control elements typically located in the 5′ untranslated regions of bacterial mRNAs where they modulate the expression of associated genes in response to elevated concentrations of cellular metabolites. Metabolite binding stabilizes the evolutionarily conserved receptor domains and affects the folding of the downstream gene-controlling modules. About 20 classes of riboswitches display a large number of RNA sequences perfectly adjusted to bind their cognate cellular metabolites. The question of how riboswitches achieve exquisite specificity for various ligands has been answered for almost all major classes of known riboswitches by structural and biochemical studies of their metabolite-sensing domains. Here I outline the most recent additions to the growing collection of riboswitch structures, review the principles of riboswitch folding and metabolite recognition, and discuss whether this information can help us understand the details of genetic control and metabolite recognition in the riboswitches whose three-dimensional structures are not available. © 2010 Landes Bioscience. |
| Keywords: | genetics; review; nonhuman; protein domain; gene expression; bacteria (microorganisms); rna; chemistry; molecular evolution; messenger rna; 5' untranslated region; molecular recognition; gene control; hydrogen bond; conformation; nucleic acid conformation; rna structure; metabolite; regulatory rna sequence; gene location; rna sequence; regulatory sequences, ribonucleic acid; riboswitch; x-ray; regulatory sequence; bacterial cell; metabolites; bacterial rna |
| Journal Title: | RNA Biology |
| Volume: | 7 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| ISSN: | 1547-6286 |
| Publisher: | Taylor & Francis Group |
| Date Published: | 2010-01-01 |
| Start Page: | 98 |
| End Page: | 103 |
| Language: | English |
| PUBMED: | 20061809 |
| PROVIDER: | scopus |
| DOI: | 10.4161/rna.7.1.10756 |
| DOI/URL: | |
| Notes: | --- - "Cited By (since 1996): 1" - "Export Date: 20 April 2011" - "Source: Scopus" |
