OLE RNA, an RNA motif that is highly conserved in several extremophilic bacteria, is a substrate for and can be regulated by RNase P RNA
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Contributed by Sidney Altman, March 27, 2007 (received for review January 31, 2007)
Abstract
OLE (ornate, large, and extremophilic) RNA is a noncoding RNA that is found in several extremophilic bacteria, including Bacillus halodurans. The function of OLE RNA has not been clarified. In this study, we found that RNase P cleaves OLE RNA and that the cleavage leads to a small reduction of expression of a downstream gene determined by analyses in vitro and in vivo. Under RNase P-deficient conditions, the amount of OLE RNA increased. Our results imply that RNase P could play a role in the regulation of gene expression in relation to conserved RNA motifs like OLE RNA as well as in riboswitches and operons.
Footnotes
- *To whom correspondence may be addressed. E-mail: sidney.altman{at}yale.edu
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Author contributions: J.-h.K. and S.A. designed research; J.-h.K. performed research; J.-h.K. and S.A. analyzed data; and J.-h.K. and S.A. wrote the paper.
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The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0701715104/DC1.
- Abbreviations:
- IPTG,
- isopropyl β-d-thiogalactoside;
- OLE,
- ornate, large, and extremophilic.
- © 2007 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA
