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The ydaO motif is an ATP-sensing riboswitch in Bacillus subtilis

Nature Chemical Biology volume 8, pages 963–965 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

We report what is to our knowledge the first natural RNA that regulates gene expression in response to intracellular ATP. Using a biochemical screen, we found that several putative riboswitches bind ATP in vitro. The ydaO motif specifically bound ATP and regulated expression of endogenous and reporter genes in response to ATP concentrations in Bacillus subtilis. This discovery demonstrates a role for RNAs in regulating gene expression in response to energy balance in bacteria.

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Figure 1: The ydaO motif binds ATP in vitro.
Figure 2: The ydaO motif is an ATP riboswitch that functions as an 'off switch' in vivo.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge J. Viladoms for thoughtful conversations and critical reading of this manuscript. We thank the groups of E. Winzeler and P. Sun for access to qPCR instruments and the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology for graduate fellowship support of P.Y. Watson.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Physiology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, USA

    Peter Y Watson & Martha J Fedor

  2. Department of Molecular Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, USA

    Peter Y Watson & Martha J Fedor

  3. The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, USA

    Peter Y Watson & Martha J Fedor

Authors
  1. Peter Y Watson
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  2. Martha J Fedor
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Contributions

P.Y.W. and M.J.F. conceived of and designed experiments, analyzed the data and prepared the manuscript. P.Y.W. conducted the experiments.

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Correspondence to Martha J Fedor.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Watson, P., Fedor, M. The ydaO motif is an ATP-sensing riboswitch in Bacillus subtilis. Nat Chem Biol 8, 963–965 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.1095

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