A haloarchaeal small regulatory RNA (sRNA) is essential for rapid adaptation to phosphate starvation conditions

  • The haloarchaeon Haloferax volcanii contains nearly 2800 small non-coding RNAs (sRNAs). One intergenic sRNA, sRNA132, was chosen for a detailed characterization. A deletion mutant had a growth defect and thus underscored the importance of sRNA132. A microarray analysis identified the transcript of an operon for a phosphate-specific ABC transporter as a putative target of sRNA132. Both the sRNA132 and the operon transcript accumulated under low phosphate concentrations, indicating a positive regulatory role of sRNA132. A kinetic analysis revealed that sRNA132 is essential shortly after the onset of phosphate starvation, while other regulatory processes take over after several hours. Comparison of the transcriptomes of wild-type and the sRNA132 gene deletion mutant 30 min after the onset of phosphate starvation revealed that sRNA132 controls a regulon of about 40 genes. Remarkably, the regulon included a second operon for a phosphate-specific ABC transporter, which also depended on sRNA132 for rapid induction in the absence of phosphate. Competitive growth experiments of the wild-type and ABC transporter operon deletion mutants underscored the importance of both transporters for growth at low phosphate concentrations. Northern blot analyses of four additional members of the sRNA132 regulon verified that all four transcripts depended on sRNA132 for rapid regulation after the onset of phosphate starvation. Importantly, this is the first example for the transient importance of a sRNA for any archaeal and bacterial species. In addition, this study unraveled the first sRNA regulon for haloarchaea.

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Author:Jana Kliemt, Katharina Jaschinsk, Jörg SoppaORCiD
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-512266
DOI:https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.01219
ISSN:1664-302X
Pubmed Id:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31231327
Parent Title (English):Frontiers in microbiology
Publisher:Frontiers Media
Place of publication:Lausanne
Contributor(s):Marie-Joelle Virolle
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Year of Completion:2019
Date of first Publication:2019/06/05
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2019/09/19
Tag:ABC transporter; Haloferax volcanii; archaea; phosphate starvation; sRNA regulon; small regulatory RNA; transient regulation
Volume:10
Issue:Art. 1219
Page Number:14
First Page:1
Last Page:14
Note:
Copyright © 2019 Kliemt, Jaschinski and Soppa. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
HeBIS-PPN:454034717
Institutes:Biowissenschaften / Biowissenschaften
Dewey Decimal Classification:5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 57 Biowissenschaften; Biologie / 570 Biowissenschaften; Biologie
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Open-Access-Publikationsfonds:Biowissenschaften
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung 4.0