Riboswitches and the RNA World
Riboswitches and the RNA World
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DOI：
10.1101/cshperspect.a003566
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发表时间：
2012-02-01
影响因子：
7.2
通讯作者：
Breaker, Ronald R.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Breaker, Ronald R.
核糖开关是选择性结合代谢物并控制基因表达的结构化非编码RNA结构域（Mandal和Breaker 2004 a; Coppins等人2007; Roth和Breaker 2009）。几乎所有已知的核糖开关都位于信使RNA的非编码区，在那里它们控制转录或翻译。新发现的核糖开关类正以每年约三种的速度被报道（艾姆斯和Breaker 2009），并且这些已经显示出选择性地响应于基础代谢物，包括辅酶、核碱基或其衍生物、氨基酸，一些核糖开关的特征表明，它们可能是古代感觉和调节系统的现代后代，这种系统可能在人类进化之前就发挥作用。酶和蛋白质组成的遗传因子的出现（Nahvi et al. 2002; Vitreschak et al. 2004; Breaker 2006）。如果这是真的，那么为现代细胞服务的一些核糖开关结构和功能可能准确地反映了RNA世界中存在的RNA传感器和开关的能力。本文将讨论现代核糖开关的一些特征，这些特征可能与这些代谢物传感RNA的古代版本有关。
Riboswitches are structured noncoding RNA domains that selectively bind metabolites and control gene expression (Mandal and Breaker 2004a; Coppins et al. 2007; Roth and Breaker 2009). Nearly all examples of the known riboswitches reside in noncoding regions of messenger RNAs where they control transcription or translation. Newfound classes of riboswitches are being reported at a rate of about three per year (Ames and Breaker 2009), and these have been shown to selectively respond to fundamental metabolites including coenzymes, nucleobases or their derivatives, amino acids, and other small molecule ligands.The characteristics of some riboswitches suggest they could be modern descendents of an ancient sensory and regulatory system that likely functioned before the emergence of enzymes and genetic factors made of protein (Nahvi et al. 2002; Vitreschak et al. 2004; Breaker 2006). If true, then some of the riboswitch structures and functions that serve modern cells sowell may accurately reflect the capabilities of RNA sensors and switches that existed in the RNAWorld. This article will address some of the characteristics of modern riboswitches that may be relevant to ancient versions of these metabolite-sensing RNAs.