Work

Intracellular Light‐Activation of Riboswitch Activity

Year: 2014

Type: article

Abstract: By combining a riboswitch with a cell-permeable photocaged small-molecule ligand, an optochemical gene control element was constructed that enabled spatial and temporal control of gene expression in bacterial cells. The simplicity of this strategy, coupled with the ability to create synthetic riboswitches with tailored ligand specificities and output in a variety of microorganisms, plants, and fungi might afford a general strategy to photocontrol gene expression in vivo. The ability to activate riboswitches by using light enables the interrogation and manipulation of a wide range of biological processes with high precision, and will have broad utility in the regulation of artificial genetic circuits.

Source: ChemBioChem

DOI: 10.1002/cbic.201400024

Authors: Steven Walsh, Laura Gardner, Alexander Deiters, Gavin J. Williams

Institutions: North Carolina State University, University of Pittsburgh

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: North Carolina State University, National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Award: Switchable Systems for Spatio-Temporal Control of Gene Expression in Zebrafish