User:Michelle Meyer BC/EC L20

In E. coli, L20 regulates the translation of both itself and L35, via two L20 binding sites within the mRNA, both of which are between infC and rpmI (encoding IF3 and L35, respectively). The two binding sites are independent and have similar in vitro affinity for L20. The mRNA acts via molecular mimicry, where the bulge with a rigorously conserved adenosine pair is similar to the L20 binding site on the 23S rRNA. However, the helix itself is variable in length and shows little base-conservation. An additional mRNA structure is known to interact with L20 to regulate rplK and rpmI (encoding L20 and L35) in B. subtilis and other Firmicutes (RFXXXX). This RNA structures bears no resemblance to the RNA structure in E. coli and acts at the transcriptional rather than the translational level.