Recent advances, challenges, and opportunities in riboswitches

Riboswitch is a regulatory element of the mRNA, binds small molecule, and modulates the translation process of synthesizing the corresponding protein. Hence, the RNA is capable with self-regulation. This is an important mechanism of transcription and posttranscription level gene regulations in the central dogma. This regulatory element has a conserved motif and is present in the 5' UTRs, an upstream region of genes. In this chapter, we have provided a detailed information on the mechanism of riboswitches with an up-to-date scientific findings and the design and applications of synthetic riboswitches in the industry and medicine domains. In this review, riboswitches with unique molecular features such as ligand-binding, termination-regulating, and translational-regulating properties are also discussed. Besides the many experimental techniques, the nonredundant role of computational techniques in the design of riboswitches is emphasized. Additionally, stability and conformational dynamics of riboswitches and their biophysical models explaining ligand-binding and translation initiation rate are also highlighted.