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Aptazyme-based riboswitches as label-free and detector-free sensors for cofactors
1Bioengineering Laboratory, RIKEN (The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research), 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan. a-ogawa@riken.jp
Abstract:
We constructed a label-free and detector-free aptazyme-based riboswitch sensor for detecting the cofactor of the aptazyme. This riboswitch, which usually suppresses the gene expression with its anti-RBS sequence bound to the RBS of its own mRNA (OFF), activates the translation only when a cofactor is added to release the anti-RBS sequence from itself as a result of cofactor-induced self-cleavage by the aptazyme (ON). The rationally optimized one with beta-galactosidase as a reporter gene enabled us to detect the cofactor of the aptazyme visibly with high ON/OFF efficiency.
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