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Long-Range Interactions in Riboswitch Control of Gene Expression
Christopher P Jones1, Adrian R Ferré-D'Amaré1
1Biochemistry and Biophysics Center, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20824;
Annual Review of Biophysics
|April 5, 2017
Summary
Riboswitches, RNA molecules regulating gene expression, share a common folding strategy. Their ligand-binding sites are located where distant sequence residues meet, aiding metabolite sensing.
Area of Science:
- Molecular Biology
- RNA Biology
- Biochemistry
Background:
- Riboswitches are RNA motifs regulating gene expression in bacteria.
- They link ligand binding to structural changes, controlling mRNA output.
- While bound states are known, unbound states and refolding mechanisms remain less understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To elucidate the common structural strategy underlying riboswitch ligand recognition.
- To understand the refolding of unbound riboswitches into ligand-bound states.
- To propose future research for riboswitch applications.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing crystal structures of riboswitch ligand-binding domains.
- Analysis of conserved structural features across diverse riboswitch classes.
- Comparative analysis of sequence and three-dimensional structural data.
Main Results:
- Riboswitches exhibit a conserved strategy for positioning ligand-binding sites.
- Binding sites are located at the junction of sequence-distant residues in the 3D fold.
- This positioning facilitates efficient ligand recognition and structural rearrangement.
Conclusions:
- Riboswitches utilize a shared folding principle for metabolite sensing.
- Understanding this principle is key to characterizing unbound states and refolding.
- This knowledge can advance the development of riboswitch-based gene regulation tools.