The apo riboswitch as a molecular hydra.
Riboswitches "sense" metabolites but knowledge is sparse for structures without bound ligand. Stoddard et al. (2010) determined an apo riboswitch structure "closed" to metabolite binding. Further SAXS, biochemical, and computational analyses support ensemble behavior with interconverting open and closed conformations.
Wedekind
Joseph E
JE
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and Center for RNA Biology, Rochester, NY 14642, USA. joseph.wedekind@rochester.edu