Sul1 RNA motif (original) (raw)

The sul1 RNA motif is a conserved RNA structure that was discovered by bioinformatics.Energetically stable tetraloops often occur in this motif.sul1 motif RNAs are found in Alphaproteobacteria. sul1 motif RNAs likely function as cis-regulatory elements, in view of their positions upstream of protein-coding genes.Indeed, the RNAs are upstream of multiple genes that encode non-homologous proteins. If all examples of the RNA were upstream of homologous genes, there is the possibility that the RNAs were conserved in that position simply by inheritance. The non-homology of the genes downstream of sul1 RNAs makes this scenario less likely.