Proper NMR methods for studying RNA thermometers

Abstract

In some pathogenic bacteria, there are RNA thermometers, which regulate the production of virulence associated factors or heat shock proteins depending on temperature changes. Like a riboswitches, RNA thermometers are located in the 5'-untranslated region and involved translational gene regulatory mechanism. RNA thermometers block the ribosome-binding site and start codon area under the 37℃ within their secondary structure. After bacterial infection, increased the temperature in the host causes conformations changes of RNA, and the ribosome-binding site is exposed for translational initiation. Because structural differences between open and closed forms of RNA thermometers are mainly mediated by base pairing changes, NMR spectroscopy is a very useful method to study these thermodynamically changing RNA structure. In this review, we briefly provide a fundamental function of RNA thermometers, and also suggest a proper NMR experiments for studying RNA thermometers.