Work

An Allosteric Self-Splicing Ribozyme Triggered by a Bacterial Second Messenger

Year: 2010

Type: article

Abstract: Riboswitch Revealed Short regulatory regions—riboswitches—are found in the messenger RNAs of many bacteria, plants, and fungi. They bind to small-molecule metabolites and, through switching between alternate RNA secondary structures, regulate the expression of the linked RNA. Lee et al. (p. 845 ) have identified a c-di-GMP (cyclic di-guanosyl-5′-monophosphate)–binding riboswitch in the bacterium Clostridium difficile that regulates the splicing of a group I self-splicing ribozyme. Binding of c-di-GMP to the riboswitch favors a conformation of the ribozyme that promotes splicing in the presence of guanosine triphosphate (as is typical for this class of ribozymes). Concomitantly, splicing promotes the formation of a ribosome binding site, thereby stimulating protein production from the downstream pathogenesis-related gene. This regulatory region may thus constitute a two-input gene-control system that reads the concentration of both GTP and c-di-GMP. Thus, not all group I self-splicing ribozymes represent selfish genetic elements.

Source: Science

DOI: 10.1126/science.1190713

Authors: Elaine R. Lee, Jenny L. Baker, Zasha Weinberg, Narasimhan Sudarsan, Ronald R. Breaker

Institutions: Yale University, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Language: English

Topic: RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms

Subfield: Molecular Biology

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Award: Structural bases of the functions of RNA-protein machines