International Journal of Molecular Sciences Review Developments of Riboswitches and Toehold Switches for Molecular Detection—Biosensing and Molecular Diagnostics Tin Hoang Trung Chau, Dung Hoang Anh Mai, Diep Ngoc Pham, Hoa Thi Quynh Le and Eun Yeol Lee * Department of Chemical Engineering, Kyung Hee University, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do 17104, Korea;
[email protected] (T.H.T.C.);
[email protected] (D.H.A.M.);
[email protected] (D.N.P.);
[email protected] (H.T.Q.L.) * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +82-31-201-3839 Received: 16 March 2020; Accepted: 29 April 2020; Published: 30 April 2020 Abstract: Riboswitches and toehold switches are considered to have potential for implementation in various fields, i.e., biosensing, metabolic engineering, and molecular diagnostics. The specific binding, programmability, and manipulability of these RNA-based molecules enable their intensive deployments in molecular detection as biosensors for regulating gene expressions, tracking metabolites, or detecting RNA sequences of pathogenic microorganisms. In this review, we will focus on the development of riboswitches and toehold switches in biosensing and molecular diagnostics. This review introduces the operating principles and the notable design features of riboswitches as well as toehold switches. Moreover, we will describe the advances and future directions of riboswitches and toehold switches in biosensing and molecular diagnostics. Keywords: riboswitches; toehold switches; molecular detection; biosensors; molecular diagnostics 1. Introduction In addition to the regulatory applications, the RNA-based regulatory system, specifically riboswitches and toehold switches, has attracted scientific interest to develop systems for molecular detection applications as biosensing and molecular diagnostics [1,2].