Structurally distinct manganese-sensing riboswitch aptamers regulate different expression platform architectures.

ABSTRACT: Manganese (Mn)-sensing riboswitches protect bacteria from Mn toxicity by upregulating expression of Mn exporters. The Mn aptamers share key features but diverge in other important elements, including within the metal-binding core. Although X-ray crystal structures of isolated aptamers exist, these structural snapshots lack crucial details about how the aptamer communicates the presence or absence of ligand to the expression platform. In this work, we investigated the Mn-sensing translational riboswitches in Escherichia coli (mntP and alx), which differ in aptamer secondary structure, nucleotide sequence, and pH-dependence of Mn response. We performed co-transcriptional RNA chemical probing, allowing us to visualize RNA folding intermediates that form and resolve en route to the final folde

SUBMITTER: Stephen C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12153347 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature