Bugała Katarzyna, Zywicki Marek, Wyszko Eliza, Barciszewska Mirosława Z, Barciszewski Jan
Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry Polish Academy of Sciences, 12 Noskowskiego St., 61-704 Poznan, Poland.
Postepy Biochem. 2005;51(2):111-9.
Riboswitches are RNA structures able to bind small molecules and regulate gene expression at both, transcriptional and translational level. They are present in a wide variety of bacterial species. In Bacillus subtilis more than 2% of the genome is regulated by riboswitches. Metabolite binding is highly specific and can be provided in cooperative manner. Several riboswitches has been identified and characterized to be specific for flavin mononucleotide, thiamine, thiamine pyrophosphate, adenosylcobalamin, S-adenosylmethionine, lysine, glycine, adenine, guanine and glucosamine-6-phosphate. Some of them have been found also in fungi (Neurospora crassa) and plants (Oryza sativa, Arabidopsis thaliana). In human only one riboswitch with binding capacity for 2-aminopurine, has been found. Occurrence of riboswitches in all of the phylogenetic groups suggests that they are one of the oldest regulatory systems. It provokes also the question about their involvement in regulation of gene expression in human.
核糖开关是一种RNA结构，能够结合小分子并在转录和翻译水平上调节基因表达。它们存在于多种细菌物种中。在枯草芽孢杆菌中，超过2%的基因组由核糖开关调控。代谢物结合具有高度特异性，并且可以以协同方式发生。已经鉴定并表征了几种对黄素单核苷酸、硫胺素、硫胺素焦磷酸、腺苷钴胺素、S-腺苷甲硫氨酸、赖氨酸、甘氨酸、腺嘌呤、鸟嘌呤和6-磷酸葡萄糖胺具有特异性的核糖开关。其中一些也在真菌（粗糙脉孢菌）和植物（水稻、拟南芥）中被发现。在人类中，仅发现了一种对2-氨基嘌呤具有结合能力的核糖开关。核糖开关在所有系统发育群体中的出现表明它们是最古老的调控系统之一。这也引发了关于它们是否参与人类基因表达调控的问题。
