title: The structural and functional diversity of metabolite-binding riboswitches.
abstract: The cellular concentrations of certain metabolites are assiduously monitored to achieve appropriate levels of gene expression. Although proteins have long been known to act as sensors in this capacity, metabolite-binding RNAs, or riboswitches, also play an important role. More than 20 distinct classes of riboswitches have been identified to date, and insights to the molecular recognition strategies of a significant subset of these have been provided by detailed structural studies. This diverse set of metabolite-sensing RNAs is found to exploit a variety of distinct mechanisms to regulate genes that are fundamental to metabolism.
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8103, USA. adam.roth@yale.edu
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Roth
authors.forename: Ronald R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Breaker
mesh_terms: D052157:Aptamers, Nucleotide / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D005057:Eukaryotic Cells / Q000378:metabolism; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D022661:RNA, Untranslated / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D052157:Aptamers, Nucleotide; D022661:RNA, Untranslated