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Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Nanomanipulation of Single RNA Molecules by Optical Tweezers
Published on: August 20, 2014
Riboswitches: natural SELEXion
1Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Colorado at Boulder, Campus Box 215, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0215, USA.
Abstract:
Advances in our knowledge of the structure and chemistry of RNA have been harnessed in the process known as SELEX to develop artificial RNA-based molecules that can act as enzymes and ligand binders performing a wide variety of functions. The discovery of riboswitches, natural RNA aptamers involved in genetic regulation, offers a basis of comparison between the artificial selection and the natural selection of structured RNAs for small-molecule recognition. The guanine riboswitch structural determination allows us to draw conclusions regarding the apparent increased complexity of the riboswitch aptamers compared to their in-vitro-selected cousins.
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