title: Magnesium-sensing riboswitches in bacteria.
abstract: All living organisms require mechanisms for coordination of intracellular metal concentrations. Many types of metal-sensing regulatory proteins have been described previously. Data in recent years have revealed that posttranscriptional mechanisms are also utilized for control of metal ion homeostasis in bacteria. In particular, two classes of RNA structural elements have been discovered to coordinate magnesium-induced structural transitions with expression levels of downstream genes. We discuss these types of regulatory RNAs herein and compare them to other classes of riboswitches that respond instead to small organic metabolites.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Arati
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ramesh
authors.forename: Wade C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Winkler
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D001483:Base Sequence; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial / Q000187:drug effects; D008274:Magnesium / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000494:pharmacology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D012329:RNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D038621:Regulatory Sequences, Ribonucleic Acid / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D012329:RNA, Bacterial; D038621:Regulatory Sequences, Ribonucleic Acid; D008274:Magnesium