User:Zashaw/riboswitch

A 3D representation of the lysine riboswitch

In molecular biology, a riboswitch is a part of an mRNA molecule that can directly bind a small target molecule, and whose binding of the target affects the gene's activity.[1][2][3] Thus, an mRNA that contains a riboswitch is directly involved in regulating its own activity, in response to the concentrations of its target molecule. The discovery that modern organisms use RNA to bind small molecules, and discriminate against closely related analogs, significantly expanded the known natural repertoire of RNA beyond its ability to code for proteins or to bind other RNA or protein macromolecules.

The original definition of the term "riboswitch" specified that they directly sense small-molecule metabolite concentrations.[4] Although this definition remains in common use, some biologists have used a broader definition that includes other cis-regulatory RNAs. However, this article will discuss only metabolite-binding riboswitches.

Most known riboswitches occur in Bacteria, but functional riboswitches of one type (the TPP riboswitch) have been discovered in plants and certain fungi. TPP riboswitches have also been predicted in Archaea,[5] but have not been experimentally tested.

  1. ^ Tucker BJ, Breaker RR (2005). "Riboswitches as versatile gene control elements". Curr Opin Struct Biol. 15 (3): 342–8. doi:10.1016/j.sbi.2005.05.003. PMID 15919195.
  2. ^ Vitreschak AG, Rodionov DA, Mironov AA, Gelfand MS (2004). "Riboswitches: the oldest mechanism for the regulation of gene expression?". Trends Genet. 20 (1): 44–50. doi:10.1016/j.tig.2003.11.008. PMID 14698618.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ Batey RT (2006). "Structures of regulatory elements in mRNAs". Curr Opin Struct Biol. 16 (3): 299–306. doi:10.1016/j.sbi.2006.05.001. PMID 16707260.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference pmid12323379 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Sudarsan N, Barrick JE, Breaker RR (2003). "Metabolite-binding RNA domains are present in the genes of eukaryotes". RNA. 9 (6): 644–7. doi:10.1261/rna.5090103. PMC 1370431. PMID 12756322.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)