Henkin T M, Grundy F J
Department of Microbiology and The RNA Group, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA.
Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 2006;71:231-7. doi: 10.1101/sqb.2006.71.020.
Recent studies in a variety of bacterial systems have revealed a number of regulatory systems in which the 5' region of a gene plays a key role in regulation of the downstream coding sequences. These RNA regions act in cis to determine if the full-length transcript will be synthesized or if the coding sequence(s) will be translated. Each class of system includes an RNA element whose structure is modulated in response to a specific regulatory signal, and the signals measured can include small molecules, small RNAs (including tRNA), and physical parameters such as temperature. Multiple sets of genes can be regulated by a particular mechanism, and multiple systems of this type, each of which responds to a specific signal, can be present in a single organism. In addition, different classes of RNA elements can be found that respond to a particular signal, indicating the existence of multiple alternate solutions to the same regulatory problem. The T box and S box systems, which respond to uncharged tRNA and S-adenosylmethionine (SAM), respectively, provide paradigms of two systems of this type.
最近在多种细菌系统中开展的研究揭示了许多调控系统，在这些系统中，基因的5'区域在下游编码序列的调控中起着关键作用。这些RNA区域顺式作用，以确定是否会合成全长转录本，或者编码序列是否会被翻译。每一类系统都包括一个RNA元件，其结构会根据特定的调控信号进行调节，所检测的信号可以包括小分子、小RNA（包括tRNA）以及诸如温度等物理参数。多组基因可以通过特定机制进行调控，并且这种类型的多个系统（每个系统对特定信号作出反应）可以存在于单个生物体中。此外，可以发现不同类别的RNA元件对特定信号作出反应，这表明针对同一调控问题存在多种替代解决方案。分别对空载tRNA和S-腺苷甲硫氨酸（SAM）作出反应的T盒和S盒系统，提供了这类两个系统的范例。
