Artificial Ribozyme Switches Containing Natural Riboswitch Aptamer Domains

RNA Lego : The use of natural riboswitch aptamers in synthetic RNA switches (see picture) should broaden the scope of artificial RNA regulators dramatically. It is shown that thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP) aptamers can be used in engineered devices as very sensitive switches of gene expression in unmodified organisms. The approach demonstrates that intrinsic metabolites can be utilized as external effectors of cellular functions.

     

Inside Cover: Artificial Ribozyme Switches Containing Natural Riboswitch Aptamer Domains (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 15/2009)

Fusions of a ribozyme and an aptamer of a natural riboswitch (thiamine pyrophosphate, TPP) are used to construct artificial thiamine‐dependent switches of gene expression. As J. S. Hartig et al. describe in their Communication on page 2715 ff. , insertion of these RNA elements into bacterial mRNAs allows translation of the message to be switched on or off. TPP triggers changes to the ribozyme‐mediated mRNA cleavage, resulting in liberation of the message for translational initiation.

     

Investigation of RNA-Ligand Interactions by (19) F NMR Spectroscopy Using Fluorinated Probes

Spy swap: The interaction between an unlabeled RNA and unlabeled ligands (red hexagon) can be monitored by (19) F?NMR spectroscopy using small fluorinated diamines (green star) as spy reporters. This technique also enables the visualization of the conformational capture of a riboswitch by its ligand.