A riboswitch can adopt different secondary structures to effect gene regulation depending on whether ligand is bound. This schematic is an example of a riboswitch that controls transcription.

“Finding an antibiotic with a new target . . . has always been one of the holy grails of antibiotics discovery,” said RNA biochemist Thomas Hermann of the University of California, San Diego, who was ...

RNA is able to control its own transcription, given the right trigger. See how the RNA-based riboswitch twists into a tangle in the presence of the right ligand.

A promising candidate for this purpose is a riboswitch, a molecule-responsive gene-regulatory sequence. When it is fused to a reporter protein gene, it can regulate (repress or promote ...

The role of RNA in information transfer and catalysis highlights its dual functionalities. Our laboratory has a long-standing interest in RNA folding, recognition, and catalysis. We are especially ...

Although the diversity of natural riboswitches (or that of their target molecules) is limited, a riboswitch responsive to a user-defined molecule can be artificially created. In fact, some natural ...

When an external target molecule enters an artificial cell by membrane permeation, if a riboswitch-gene fusion specific to the target is present inside, a glowing protein is expressed from the ...

Mar 28, 2025 Artificial cells that glow at room temperature in response to external target molecules Artificial cells using riboswitch-gene fusion in liposomes produce fluorescent proteins when ...