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Purine sensing by riboswitches
Author(s) -
Kim Jane N.,
Breaker Ronald R.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
biology of the cell
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.543
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1768-322X
pISSN - 0248-4900
DOI - 10.1042/bc20070088
Subject(s) - riboswitch , purine metabolism , biology , guanine , purine , computational biology , base pair , biochemistry , genetics , rna , dna , gene , non coding rna , nucleotide , enzyme
Structured mRNA elements called riboswitches control gene expression by binding to small metabolites. Over a dozen riboswitch classes have been characterized that target a broad range of molecules and vary widely in size and secondary structure. Four of the known riboswitch classes recognize purines or modified purines. Three of these classes are closely related in conserved sequence and secondary structure, but members of these classes selectively recognize guanine, adenine or 2′‐deoxyguanosine. Members of the fourth riboswitch class adopt a distinct structure to form a selective binding pocket for the guanine analogue preQ 1 (7‐aminomethyl‐7‐deazaguanine). All four classes of purine‐sensing riboswitches are most likely to recognize their respective metabolites by utilizing a riboswitch residue to make a canonical Watson—Crick base‐pair with the ligand. This review will provide a summary of the purine‐sensing riboswitches, as well as discuss the complex functions and applications of these RNAs.