FEBS Letters
Volume 584, Issue 2 , Pages 318-324, 21 January 2010

The T box mechanism: tRNA as a regulatory molecule

Edited by Manuel Santos

Department of Microbiology, Center for RNA Biology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA

Received 9 November 2009; received in revised form 13 November 2009; accepted 16 November 2009. published online 20 November 2009.

Abstract 

The T box mechanism is widely used in Gram-positive bacteria to regulate expression of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase genes and genes involved in amino acid biosynthesis and uptake. Binding of a specific uncharged tRNA to a riboswitch element in the nascent transcript causes a structural change in the transcript that promotes expression of the downstream coding sequence. In most cases, this occurs by stabilization of an antiterminator element that competes with formation of a terminator helix. Specific tRNA recognition by the nascent transcript results in increased expression of genes important for tRNA aminoacylation in response to decreased pools of charged tRNA.

Keywords: Transcription attenuation, Antitermination, tRNA, Regulation, Riboswitch

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PII: S0014-5793(09)00969-7

doi:10.1016/j.febslet.2009.11.056

FEBS Letters
Volume 584, Issue 2 , Pages 318-324, 21 January 2010

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