Temperature and Mutation Switches in the Secondary Structure of Small RNAs

Conformational switching in the secondary structure of RNAs has recently attracted considerable attention, fostered by the discovery of ‘riboswitches’ in living organisms. These are genetic control elements that were found in bacteria and offer a unique regulation mechanism based on switching between two highly stable states, separated by an energy barrier between them. In riboswitches, the energy barrier is crossed by direct metabolite binding, which facilitates regulation by allosteric means. However, other event triggers can cause switching to occur, such as single-point mutations and slight variations in temperature. Examples of switches with these event triggers have already been reported experimentally in the past. Here, our goal is to computationally design small RNA switches that rely on these triggers. Towards this end, our computer simulations utilize a variety of different similarity measures to assess the distances between an initial state and triggered states, based o...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: CSB
• Authors: Assaf Avihoo, Danny Barash
• Keywords: Bioinformatics, CSB 2005, Energy Barrier, Event Triggers, Secondary Structure