In molecular biology, the ''Hsp17 thermometer'' is an RNA element (

RNA thermometer An RNA thermometer (or RNA thermosensor) is a temperature-sensitive non-coding RNA molecule which regulates gene expression. RNA thermometers often regulate genes required during either a heat shock or cold shock response, but have been implicat ...

) found in the

5' UTR The 5′ untranslated region (also known as 5′ UTR, leader sequence, transcript leader, or leader RNA) is the region of a messenger RNA (mRNA) that is directly upstream from the initiation codon. This region is important for the regulation of ...

of Hsp17 mRNA. Hsp17 is a

cyanobacterial Cyanobacteria (), also known as Cyanophyta, are a phylum of gram-negative bacteria that obtain energy via photosynthesis. The name ''cyanobacteria'' refers to their color (), which similarly forms the basis of cyanobacteria's common name, blu ...

heat shock protein belonging to the Hsp20 family. At

physiological Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

temperature (28 degrees Celsius) the Hsp17 thermometer forms a

hairpin structure Stem-loop intramolecular base pairing is a pattern that can occur in single-stranded RNA. The structure is also known as a hairpin or hairpin loop. It occurs when two regions of the same strand, usually complementary in nucleotide sequence wh ...

, preventing translation of Hsp17. Under heat shock conditions the hairpin structure melts and translation takes place.

References

Cis-regulatory RNA elements {{molecular-cell-biology-stub

See also

References