核糖开关结构的开关特性与调控机制

项目名称： 核糖开关结构的开关特性与调控机制

项目编号： No.31270761

项目类型： 面上项目

立项/批准年度： 2013

项目学科： 生物科学

项目作者： 张文炳

作者单位： 武汉大学

项目金额： 70万元

中文摘要： 核糖开关和RNA干扰一道被称为近十年RNA的两个重大发现，它不仅可以进行转录调控而且还可以在翻译进行基因表达调控，同时它们能特异性识别或选择配体，是一种具有应用价值的生物传感器。尽管近期的实验和理论研究对核糖开关的结构与动力学调控基因表达进行了比较深入的研究，仍然有一些关键问题没有解决，如（1）核糖开关对小分子代谢物的分子识别机制： 核糖开关如何实现识别配体的高特异性和高敏感性？（2）核糖开关结合配体的动力学机制：核糖开关结合配体前后的构象如何变化？结合代谢物后如何调整空间结构并调控基因表达？这种调控究竟是热力学还是动力学控制或者是一种联合控制？本项目针对二类典型的核糖开关分子，结合我们自己建立的RNA宏观动力学和分子动力学方法，从理论上深入地研究核糖开关结构的开关特性及调控机制。

中文关键词： 核糖开关；转录；动力学；调控；机制

英文摘要： Riboswitch and RNAi are known as the two important discoveries about RNA during the past ten years. It can regulate the gene expression not only in the transcription process but also in the translation process, and meanwhile it has extraordinary ability to discern the ligands and would be an applicable biology sensor. Although there are many studies about the riboswitch recently, there are a few key problems still not understood. e.g. (1) the mechanism of riboswith dicerning the ligands with high efficiency and specificity. (2) the dynamical mechansim of ligand binding riboswitch: How do the structures of the riboswitch transit before and after the ligand binding and then regulate the gene expresion? Is the regulation goverened by therodynamics or kinetics or both of them? Using the macro-dynamic methods founded by ourselfves and MD methods, this project will theoretically study the switch properties and regulation mechanism of two type riboswitches.

英文关键词： riboswitch；transcription；kinetics；regulation；mechanism