Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2018 Apr;6(2).
doi: 10.1128/microbiolspec.RWR-0012-2017.

RNA Thermometers in Bacterial Pathogens

Edmund Loh  1   2 , Francesco Righetti  1 , Hannes Eichner  1 , Christian Twittenhoff  3 , Franz Narberhaus  3
Affiliations
Free article
Review

RNA Thermometers in Bacterial Pathogens

Edmund Loh et al. Microbiol Spectr. 2018 Apr.
Free article

Abstract

Temperature variation is one of the multiple parameters a microbial pathogen encounters when it invades a warm-blooded host. To survive and thrive at host body temperature, human pathogens have developed various strategies to sense and respond to their ambient temperature. An instantaneous response is mounted by RNA thermometers (RNATs), which are integral sensory structures in mRNAs that modulate translation efficiency. At low temperatures outside the host, the folded RNA blocks access of the ribosome to the translation initiation region. The temperature shift upon entering the host destabilizes the RNA structure and thus permits ribosome binding. This reversible zipper-like mechanism of RNATs is ideally suited to fine-tune virulence gene expression when the pathogen enters or exits the body of its host. This review summarizes our present knowledge on virulence-related RNATs and discusses recent developments in the field.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources