Publications - Published papers
Please find below publications of our group. Currently, we list 565 papers. Some of the publications are in collaboration with the group of Sonja Prohaska and are also listed in the publication list for her individual group. Access to published papers () is restricted to our local network and chosen collaborators.
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©NOTICE: All papers are copyrighted by the authors; If you would like to use all or a portion of any paper, please contact the author.
Design criteria for synthetic riboswitches acting on transcription
Manja Wachsmuth, Gesine Domin, Ronny Lorenz, Robert Serfling, Sven Findeiß, Peter F Stadler & Mario Mörl
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Status: Published
RNA Biology 12: 221-231 (2015)
Abstract
Riboswitches are RNA-based regulators of gene expression composed of a ligand-sensing aptamer domain followed by an overlapping expression platform. The regulation occurs at either the level of transcription (by formation of terminator or antiterminator structures) or translation (by presentation or sequestering of the ribosomal binding site). Due to a modular composition, these elements can be manipulated by combining different aptamers and expression platforms and therefore represent useful tools to regulate gene expression in synthetic biology. Using computationally designed theophylline-dependent riboswitches we show that 2 parameters, terminator hairpin stability and folding traps, have a major impact on the functionality of the designed constructs. These have to be considered very carefully during design phase. Furthermore, a combination of several copies of individual riboswitches leads to a much improved activation ratio between induced and uninduced gene activity and to a linear dose-dependent increase in reporter gene expression. Such serial arrangements of synthetic riboswitches closely resemble their natural counterparts and may form the basis for simple quantitative read out systems for the detection of specific target molecules in the cell.