Question

Compare and contrast sRNA regulators that act in trans and riboswitches?

Answer 1

RNAs have been known to perform a vast amount of regulatory functions in bacteria and archaea.

Small RNA (sRNA) and riboswitches are two extensively studied classes of regulatory RNAs. sRNAs are trans-acting RNA elements between ~50-500 nucleotides in length that are either independently transcribed or processed from a non-target mRNA, and contain imperfect complementarity to the target messenger RNA (mRNA) to perform post-transcriptional regulatory functions.

On the contrary, riboswitches are cis-regulatory structured RNA elements in the untranslated regions of mRNAs, capable of regulating downstream gene expression through small molecule ligand-induced conformational switching.

These regulatory RNAs have revealed the precise and sophisticated nature of natural gene regulatory networks and have inspired efforts to mimic these mechanisms and functions by engineering RNA tools for an increasing number of synthetic biology applications.

There have been several recent reviews on synthetic biology of sRNAs and riboswitches that have focused on one regulatory RNA class and mainly have been addressed to the synthetic biology field (1–6).