X-ray crystallographic structure analysis of the RNA thermometer ROSE and the preQ1-specific riboswitch

调控rna在所有三种生命体中都是常见的。核糖开关主要位于信使rna的非编码区。它们以非常高的亲和力结合代谢物，从而形成稳定的RNA折叠，并控制与相应RNA结合代谢物相关的蛋白质的表达。一个特殊的核开关家族是RNA温度计，它以温度依赖的方式调节基因表达。我们的工作将集中在RNA温度计ROSE的晶体结构确定，它控制许多细菌中小热休克蛋白的表达。我们还将确定preq1特异性核糖体开关的晶体结构，该开关控制着参与超修饰trna -核苷排队苷生物合成的编码酶基因的表达。这种已知最小的核糖开关特别有趣，因为它可能代表RNA特异性结合核碱基的最小结构基序。

Regulatory RNAs are common to all three kingdoms of life. Riboswitches are mostly located in the non-coding regions of messenger RNAs. They bind metabolites with very high affinity leading to the formation of a stable RNA fold and the control of the expression of proteins related to the corresponding RNA-binding metabolite. A special family of riboswitches are RNA thermometers which regulate gene expression in a temperature-dependent fashion. Our work will focus on the crystal structure determination of the RNA thermometer ROSE, which controls the expression of small heat shock proteins in many bacteria. We also will determine the crystal structure of the preQ1-specific riboswitch, which controls the expression of genes encoding enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of the hypermodified tRNA-nucleoside queuosine. This smallest known riboswitch is of particular interest, as it might represent the minimal structural motif for the specific binding of a nucleobase by RNA.