• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.44 no.2
• /
• pp.93-97
• /
• 2008

RraA is a recently discovered protein inhibitor that regulates the enzymatic activity of RNase E, which plays a major role in the decay and processing of RNAs in Escherichia coli. It has also been shown to regulate the activity of RNase ES, a functional Streptomyces coelicolor ortholog of RNase E, which has 36% identity to the amino-terminal region of RNase E. There are two open reading frames in S. coelicolor genome that can potentially encode proteins having more than 35.4% similarity to the amino acid sequence of RraA. DNA fragment encoding one of these RraA orthologs, designated as RraAS2 here, was amplified and cloned in to E. coli vector to test whether it has ability to regulate RNase E activity in E. coli cells. Co-expression of RraAS2 partially rescued E. coli cells over-producing RNase E from growth arrest, although not as efficiently as RraA, induced by the increased ribonucleolytic activity in the cells. The copy number of ColEl-type plasmid in these cells was also decreased by 14% compared to that in cells over-producing RNase E only, indicating the ability of RraAS2 to inhibit RNase E action on RNA I. We observed that the expression level of RraAS2 was lower than that of RraA by 4.2 folds under the same culture condition, suggesting that because of inefficient expression of RraAS2 in E. coli cells, co-expression of RraAS2 was not efficiently able to inhibit RNase E activity to the level for proper processing and decay of all RNA species that is required to restore normal cellular growth to the cells over-producing RNase E.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.46 no.2
• /
• pp.223-227
• /
• 2010

RNase E plays a major role in the degradation and processing of a large number of RNA transcripts in Escherichia coli and forms the core component of the degradosome, a large protein complex involved in RNA metabolism. RraA and RraB are recently discovered protein inhibitors of RNase E and are evolutionarily conserved. In this study, we observed that, unlike RraA, overexpression of RraB did not rescue growth arrest of E. coli cells overexpressing RNase E. To examine whether this phenomenon stems from differential inhibitory effects of RraA and RraB on RNase E substrates, we analyzed three in vivo RNase E substrates. The results showed that RraA inhibited RNase E activity more efficiently than RraB on the degradation of RNA I, which controls the copy number of ColE1-type plasmid, and rpsO mRNA encoding ribosomal protein S15, while RraB was unable to inhibit the processing of pM1 RNA, a precursor of the RNA component of RNase P, by RNase E. Our results imply that RraB inhibits RNase E activity in a more substrate-dependent manner than RraA and this property of RraB may explain why overexpression of RraB could not rescue cells overexpressing RNase E from growth arrest.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.52 no.3
• /
• pp.243-248
• /
• 2016

RNase E (Rne) is an essential enzyme involved in the processing and degradation of a large portion of RNAs in Escherichia coli. The enzymatic activity of RNase E is controlled by regulators of ribonuclease activity, namely, RraA and RraB. Gram-positive bacterium Streptomyces coelicolor also contains homologs of Rne and RraA, designated as RNase ES (Rns), RraAS1, and RraAS2. In the present study, we investigated the effect of S. coelicolor RraAS1 on the ribonucleolytic activity of RNase E in E. coli. Coexpression of RraAS1 with Rne resulted in the decreased levels of rpsO, ftsZ, and rnhB mRNAs, which are RNase E substrates, and augmented the toxic effect of Rne overexpression on cell growth. These in vivo effects appeared to be induced by the binding of RraAS1 to Rne, as indicated by the results of co-immunoprecipitation analysis. These results suggested that RraAS1 induces ribonucleolytic activity of RNase E in E. coli.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.43 no.1
• /
• pp.72-75
• /
• 2007

Using co-immunoprecipitation, we identified proteins interacting with Streptomyces coelicolor RNase ES, an ortholog of Escherichia coli RNase E that plays a major role in RNA decay and processing. Polyphosphate kinase and a homolog of exoribonuclease polynucleotide phosphorylase, guanosine pentaphosphate synthetase I that use inorganic phophate were co-precipitated with RNase E, indicating a possibility of S. coelicolor RNase ES to form a multiprotein complex called degradosome, which has been shown to be formed by RNase E in E. coli. Polynucleotide phophorylase proteins from these two phylogenetically distantly related bacteria species showed similar RNA cleavage action in vitro. These results imply the ability of RNase ES to form a multiprotein complex that has structurally and functionally similar to that of E. coli degradosome.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.26 no.6
• /
• pp.396-402
• /
• 1982

Bacteriophage T4 tRNA processing in E. coli mutant strains defective in RNase Ⅲ, RNase E$^-$, and RNase P, respectively, singly or in combinations, was investigated. In $RNase E^- strains, a RNA band, which would be referred as 9S RNA, accumulates, while in RNase$ P^-$ strains, lower band of 6S double band is accumulated. In RNase III$^-$ strains, the production of tRAN$^{Gln}$ coded by T4 tRNA gene cluster, is severely depressed and also production of species 1 RNA, which is coded by T4 DNA but not by the tRNA gene cluster, is in somewhat depressed amounts; on the other hand, at the same time, an upper band of 6S double bands, coded by T4 tRNA gene cluster, is accumulated in rather greater amounts as compared to the RNase $^+$ strain. The upper band RNA of the 6S double band, however, does not appear to be a precursor to the tRNA$^{Gln}$. The present work points to the lack of evidence for an essential cleavage role of RNase Ⅲ, although there must be a role for the RNase Ⅲ in the T4 tRNA processing.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.15 no.5
• /
• pp.1100-1105
• /
• 2005

Previous work has identified a Streptomyces coelicolor gene, rns, encoding a 140 kDa protein (RNase ES) that exhibits the endoribonucleolytic cleavage specificity characteristic of RNase E and confers viability on and allows the propagation of E. coli cells lacking RNase E. Here, we identify a putative S. coelicolor 9S rRNA sequence and sites cleaved by RNase ES. The cleavage of the S. coelicolor 9S rRNA transcript by RNase ES resulted in a 5S rRNA precursor (p5S) that had four and two additional nucleotides at the 5' end and 3' ends of the mature 5S rRNA, respectively. However, despite the similarities between RNase E and RNase ES, these enzymes could accurately process 9S rRNA from just their own bacteria, indicating that these ancient enzymes and the rRNA segments that they attack appear to have co-evolved.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.18 no.8
• /
• pp.1353-1356
• /
• 2008

RNase E (Rne) plays a major role in the decay and processing of numerous RNAs in E. coli, and protein inhibitors of RNase E, RraA and RraB, have recently been discovered. Here, we report that coexpression of RraA or RraB reduces the ribonucleolytic activity in rne-deleted E. coli cells overproducing RNase ES, a Streptomyces coelicolor functional ortholog of RNase E, and consequently rescues these cells from growth arrest. These findings suggest that the regulators of ribonuclease activity have a conserved intrinsic property that effectively acts on an RNase E-like enzyme found in a distantly related bacterial species.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.46 no.3
• /
• pp.229-232
• /
• 2010

Enolase is one of the glycolytic enzymes, which are involved in a central energy metabolism present in nearly all organisms. In Escherichia coli, enolase constitutes RNA degradosome with RNase E, PNPase and RNA helicase, which are involved in most mRNA degradation and RNA processing. Recently, it has been reported that RNase G, an RNase E homolog, degrades eno mRNA. To examine a functional role of RNase G in enolase expression which is known to be up-regulated under microaerobic condition, we carried out experiments. Here, we report that expression levels of enolase and RNase G are not correlated under microaerobic condition. Based on this observation, we suggest the existence of an unknown factor(s) which regulate the activity of RNase G or enolase mRNA under microaerobic conditions.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.43 no.4
• /
• pp.325-330
• /
• 2007

RNase E is an essential Escherichia coli endoribonuclease that plays a major role in the decay and processing of a large fraction of RNAs in the cell and expression of N-terminal domain consisted of 1-498 amino acids (N-Rne) is sufficient to support normal cellular growth. By utilizing these properties of RNase E, we developed a genetic system to screen for amino acid substitutions in the catalytic domain of the protein (N-Rne) that lead to various phenotypes. Using this system, we identified three kinds of mutants. A mutant N-Rne containing amino acid substitution in the S1 domain (I6T) of the protein was not able to support survival of E. coli cells, and another mutant N-Rne with amino acid substitution at the position 488 (R488C) in the small domain enabled N-Rne to have an elevated ribonucleolytic activity, while amino acid substitution in the DNase I domain (N305D) only enabled N-Rne to support survival of E. roli cells when the mutant N-Rne was over-expressed. Analysis of copy number of ColEl-type plasmid revealed that effects of amino acid substitution on the ability of N-Rne to support cellular growth stemmed from their differential effects on the ribonucleolytic activity of N-Rne in the cell. These results imply that the genetic system developed in this study can be used to isolate mutant RNase E with various phenotypes, which would help to unveil a functional role of each subdomain of the protein in the regulation of RNA stability in E. coli.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.29 no.6
• /
• pp.1137-1140
• /
• 2008

M1 RNA, the catalytic subunit of Escherichia coli RNase P, is an essential ribozyme that processes the 5' leader sequence of tRNA precursors (ptRNAs). Using KS2003, an E. coli strain generating only low levels of M1 RNA, which showed growth defects, we examined whether M1 RNA is involved in polycistronic mRNA processing or degradation. Microarray analysis of total RNA from KS2003 revealed six polycistronic operon mRNAs (acpP-fabF, cysDNC, flgAMN, lepAB, phoPQ, and puuCBE) showing large differences in expression between the adjacent genes in the same mRNA transcript compared with the KS2001 wild type strain. Model substrates spanning an adjacent pair of genes for each polycistronic mRNA were tested for RNase P cleavage in vitro. Five model RNAs (cysNC, flgMN, lepAB, phoPQ, and puuBE) were cleaved by RNase P holoenzyme but not by M1 RNA alone. However, the cleavages occurred at non-ptRNA-like cleavage sites, with much less efficiency than the cleavage of ptRNA. Since cleavage products generated by RNase P from a polycistronic mRNA can have different in vivo stabilities, our results suggest that RNase P cleavage may lead to differential expression of each cistron.