Nature: Important achievements in structural biology

November 18, 2016 Source: Bio Valley

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In the November 15 issue of Nature, researchers at the US Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory implemented the first real-time imaging of RNA switches that regulate protein production. This important research demonstrates the power of X-ray electron-free lasers (XFEL) in the study of RNA.

Yun-Xing Wang, a structural biologist who led the study, said: "This is the first time in the real-time observation of biological reactions triggered by the interaction of two biomolecules at the atomic level." XFEL provides a new and effective way for people to understand the basic mechanisms of cells.

RNA is a key genetic material for all cells, and the ribosomes produce proteins in a variety of ways based on DNA blueprints. A riboswitch is a special RNA switch that is found in bacteria. Wang and colleagues studied a riboswitch that is located on a long chain of mRNA, which regulates protein synthesis. This mRNA directs the synthesis of proteins responsible for helping cells produce adenine. When there is too much adenine in the bacteria, the adenine molecules enter the pocket of the riboswitch, causing the switch to change to another form, changing the rate at which protein and adenine are produced. The researchers made the riboswitch made into nanocrystals and mixed them in a solution containing adenine molecules. Each crystal is small and the adenine can penetrate quickly and evenly into the pocket of the ribosome switch.

The researchers then bombarded the crystals with X-ray lasers at specific time intervals, and for the first time observed a fleeting intermediate phase. They obtained the initial state of the empty pocket of the first riboswitch and found that it had two slightly different conformations, but only one of them participated in the switching activity.

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