Pausing guides RNA folding to populate transiently stable RNA structures for riboswitch-based transcription regulation.

ABSTRACT: In bacteria, the regulation of gene expression by cis-acting transcriptional riboswitches located in the 5'-untranslated regions of messenger RNA requires the temporal synchronization of RNA synthesis and ligand binding-dependent conformational refolding. Ligand binding to the aptamer domain of the riboswitch induces premature termination of the mRNA synthesis of ligand-associated genes due to the coupled formation of 3'-structural elements acting as terminators. To date, there has been no high resolution structural description of the concerted process of synthesis and ligand-induced restructuring of the regulatory RNA element. Here, we show that for the guanine-sensing xpt-pbuX riboswitch from Bacillus subtilis, the conformation of the full-length transcripts is static: it e

SUBMITTER: Steinert H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5459577 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature