Identification and Characterization of small RNAs in Agrobacterium tumefaciens
Abstract
In the past years small noncoding RNAs (sRNAs) have received enormous attention as a new class of gene expression regulators. The largest and most extensively studied set of sRNAs act through base pairing with target RNAs, usually modulating the translation and stability of mRNAs (1).
Using a comparative bioinformatic approach (2) we identified diverse sRNAs in the plant pathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Two tandem sRNAs control the expression of at least three ABC transporters among them the periplasmic binding protein of the GABA transporter. The molecular details of the sRNA-mRNA interaction will be presented.
By using a differential RNA sequencing (dRNA-seq) technology (3) we discovered many new sRNA candidates on all four A. tumefaciens replicons, the circular chromosome, the linear chromosome, the At-plasmid and the Ti-plasmid. At least one sRNA is highly induced under virulence conditions.
References
1. Waters, L. S. & G. Storz, (2009) Regulatory RNAs in bacteria. Cell 136: 615-628.
2. Axmann, I.M., Kensche, P., Vogel, J., Kohl, S., Herzel, H., and Hess, W.R. (2005) Identification of cyanobacterial non-coding RNAs by comparative genome analysis. Genome Biol 6: R73.
3. Sharma, C.M., Hoffmann, S., Darfeuille, F., Reignier, J., Findeiss, S., Sittka, A., Chabas, S., Reiche, K., Hackermuller, J., Reinhardt, R., Stadler, P.F., and Vogel, J. (2010) The primary transcriptome of the major human pathogen Helicobacter pylori. Nature 464: 250-255.
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