Sandbox Reserved 402: Difference between revisions

Riboswitches are highly conserved metabolite binding domains that are present in the 5'-UTR of certain mRNAs in bacteria. These structural elements bind specific metabolites in the aptamer (binding site) domain that results in allosteric rearrangement in the adjacent expression platform that interacts with RNA elements to regulate gene expression associated with biosythesis and transport.The <scene name='Sandbox_Reserved_402/Initial_structure_with_bases/1'>guanine riboswitch</scene> operates by the binding of a metabolite to the aptamer domain which is highly conserved. Through allosteric effects the aptamer then changes the conformation of the expression platform which results in the premature termination of transcription, inhibition of translation initiation, or mRNA self-cleavage. Thus, riboswitches have two distinct conformations in which they operate: a metabolite bound and metabolite-free folds, involving the alternative base-pairing of the regulatory RNA region.<ref>PMID: 15610857 </ref>