Caged glucosamine-6-phosphate for the light-control of riboswitch activityThis paper is part of a themed issue on photoremovable protecting groups: development and applications.Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Experimental details on compound synthesis, RNA synthesis and labelling, fluorescence polarization assays, and characterization data. See DOI: 10.1039/c1pp05242j

We have synthesized a light-activatable (caged) derivative of glucosamine-6-phosphate (GlcN6P), which only upon irradiation becomes a cofactor for the glmS riboswitch. This glmS riboswitch maintains its activity when embedded in the 3-untranslated region of eukaryotic mRNA molecules and caged GlcN6P reduces the amount of translated EGFP upon irradiation with light in vitro . We have synthesized a light-activatable (caged) derivative of glucosamine-6-phosphate (GlcN6P), which only upon irradiation becomes a cofactor for the glmS riboswitch.