Mechanistic insights into an engineered riboswitch: a switching element which confers riboswitch activity

  • While many different RNA aptamers have been identified that bind to a plethora of small molecules only very few are capable of acting as engineered riboswitches. Even for aptamers binding the same ligand large differences in their regulatory potential were observed. We address here the molecular basis for these differences by using a set of unrelated neomycin-binding aptamers. UV melting analyses showed that regulating aptamers are thermally stabilized to a significantly higher degree upon ligand binding than inactive ones. Regulating aptamers show high ligand-binding affinity in the low nanomolar range which is necessary but not sufficient for regulation. NMR data showed that a destabilized, open ground state accompanied by extensive structural changes upon ligand binding is important for regulation. In contrast, inactive aptamers are already pre-formed in the absence of the ligand. By a combination of genetic, biochemical and structural analyses, we identified a switching element responsible for destabilizing the ligand free state without compromising the bound form. Our results explain for the first time the molecular mechanism of an engineered riboswitch.

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Author:Julia WeigandORCiDGND, Sina R. Schmidtke, Tristan J. Will, Elke Duchardt-FernerORCiD, Christian Hammann, Jens WöhnertORCiDGND, Beatrix SüßGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-278518
URL:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3082870/
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkq946
ISSN:1362-4962
ISSN:0305-1048
Pubmed Id:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21149263
Parent Title (English):Nucleic acids research
Publisher:Oxford Univ. Press
Place of publication:Oxford
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2010/12/11
Date of first Publication:2010/12/11
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2013/01/22
Volume:39
Issue:8
Page Number:10
First Page:3363
Last Page:3372
Note:
© The Author(s) 2010. Published by Oxford University Press. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
HeBIS-PPN:319852474
Institutes:Biowissenschaften / Biowissenschaften
Dewey Decimal Classification:5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 57 Biowissenschaften; Biologie / 570 Biowissenschaften; Biologie
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung-Nicht kommerziell 3.0