Referenced in: none

Automatically associated channels: Kv10.1

Title: An RNA trap helps bacteria get the most out of chitosugars.

Authors: Jörg Vogel

Journal, date & volume: Mol. Microbiol., 2009 Sep , 73, 737-41

PubMed link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19659640

Abstract
Small regulatory RNAs (sRNAs) are well known to command bacterial protein synthesis by modulating the translation and decay of target mRNAs. Most sRNAs are specifically regulated by a cognate transcription factor under certain growth or stress conditions. Investigations of the conserved Hfq-dependent MicM sRNA in Escherichia coli (article by Poul Valentin-Hansen and colleagues in this issue of Molecular Microbiology) and in Salmonella have unravelled a novel type of gene regulation in which the chitobiose operon mRNA acts as an RNA trap to degrade the constitutively expressed MicM sRNA, thereby alleviating MicM-mediated repression of the synthesis of the YbfM porin that is required for chitosugar uptake. The results suggest that 'target' mRNAs might be both prey and also predators of sRNAs.