Center for Plant Molecular Biology (ZMBP), Tübingen University, Tübingen, Germany.
RNA Biol. 2010 Jan-Feb;7(1):67-76. doi: 10.4161/rna.7.1.10489. Epub 2010 Jan 1.
The discovery of metabolite-sensing RNA domains with gene regulatory functions, so-called riboswitches, has greatly expanded our view of the structural and functional complexity of RNA. Hitherto, more than 20 distinct riboswitch classes have been identified, which respond to a variety of small molecules and perform sophisticated gene regulatory tasks. Riboswitches are typically positioned in the 5' untranslated region of bacterial mRNAs, where they control gene expression by transcriptional or translational attenuation. However, the recent investigation of additional riboswitch classes has revealed a more complex repertoire of regulatory mechanisms. This also includes splicing control in filamentous fungi, green algae and higher plants by thiamin pyrophosphate-binding riboswitches, the only class of metabolite-sensing RNAs identified in eukaryotes so far. All eukaryotic riboswitches characterized to date modulate, in a first step, splicing, but the downstream processes under control vary fundamentally among different species further highlighting the versatility of this gene regulatory mechanism.
代谢物感应 RNA 结构域具有基因调控功能的发现，即所谓的核酶，极大地扩展了我们对 RNA 结构和功能复杂性的认识。迄今为止，已经确定了 20 多种不同的核酶类，它们可以响应各种小分子并执行复杂的基因调控任务。核酶通常位于细菌 mRNA 的 5'非翻译区，通过转录或翻译衰减来控制基因表达。然而，对其他核酶类的最近研究揭示了更复杂的调控机制 repertoire。这还包括硫胺素焦磷酸结合核酶对丝状真菌、绿藻和高等植物剪接的控制，这是迄今为止在真核生物中发现的唯一一类代谢物感应 RNA。迄今为止，所有被表征的真核核酶在第一步都调节剪接，但不同物种的下游过程控制存在根本差异，进一步突出了这种基因调控机制的多功能性。
