Cobalamin Riboswitches Are Broadly Sensitive to Corrinoid Cofactors to Enable an Efficient Gene Regulatory Strategy.

ABSTRACT: In bacteria, many essential metabolic processes are controlled by riboswitches, gene regulatory RNAs that directly bind and detect metabolites. Highly specific effector binding enables riboswitches to respond to a single biologically relevant metabolite. Cobalamin riboswitches are a potential exception because over a dozen chemically similar but functionally distinct cobalamin variants (corrinoid cofactors) exist in nature. Here, we measured cobalamin riboswitch activity in vivo using a Bacillus subtilis fluorescent reporter system and found, among 38 tested riboswitches, a subset responded to corrinoids promiscuously, while others were semiselective. Analyses of chimeric riboswitches and structural models indicate, unlike other riboswitch classes, cobalamin riboswitches indirectly

SUBMITTER: Kennedy KJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9600662 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature