Each time a tRNA with a fluorescent tag attached took up a position on the T-box riboswitch, a bright signal appeared in the microscope. By measuring exactly how long the signal lasted, and thus how ...

A riboswitch can adopt different secondary structures to effect gene regulation depending on whether ligand is bound. This schematic is an example of a riboswitch that controls transcription. When ...

In a discovery that points to potential new antibiotic medicines, scientists from Rice University and the University of Michigan have deciphered the workings of a common but little-understood ...

To prevent a global health crisis, scientists around the world are searching for ways to fight bacteria that can evade the current arsenal of antibiotics. A promising target for new and improved ...

The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), in collaboration with Astellas Pharma Inc., has developed a new toolkit that uses small molecules to control the activity of a piece of ...

Although one might think it would be simple, the genetics of bacteria can be rather complicated. A bacterium’s genes use a set of regulatory proteins and other molecules to monitor and change genetic ...

Using new simulations, researchers discovered one part of RNA smoothly invades and displaces another part of the same RNA, enabling the structure to rapidly and dramatically change shape. Called ...

The rise of antibiotic resistance among common infectious bacteria is a worrisome health threat that has many scientists looking for a solution. Jennifer Hines, Ph.D., professor of chemistry and ...

“Finding an antibiotic with a new target . . . has always been one of the holy grails of antibiotics discovery,” said RNA biochemist Thomas Hermann of the University of California, San Diego, who was ...

In a discovery that points to potential new antibiotic medicines, scientists have deciphered the workings of a common but little-understood bacterial switch that cuts off protein production. In a ...