Riboswitch Scanner: An efficient pHMM-based web-server to detect riboswitches in genomic sequences

Abstract

Riboswitches are non-coding RNA located in the 5′ untranslated regions where they bind a target metabolite used to specify the riboswitch class and control the expression of associated genes. Accurate identification of riboswitches is the first step towards understanding their regulatory and functional roles in the cell. In this article, we describe a new web application named Riboswitch Scanner which provides an automated pipeline for pHMM-based detection of riboswitches in partial as well as complete genomic sequences rapidly, with high sensitivity and specificity.