RNase III-mediated processing of a trans-acting bacterial sRNA and its cis-encoded antagonist

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Abstract

Bacterial small RNAs (sRNAs) are important post-transcriptional regulators in stress responses and virulence. They can be derived from an expanding list of genomic contexts, such as processing from parental transcripts by RNase E. The role of RNase III in sRNA biogenesis is less well understood despite its well-known roles in rRNA processing, RNA decay, and cleavage of sRNA-mRNA duplexes. Here, we show that RNase III processes a pair of cis-encoded sRNAs (CJnc190 and CJnc180) of the foodborne pathogen Campylobacter jejuni. While CJnc180 processing by RNase III requires CJnc190, In contrast, RNase III processes CJnc190 independent of CJnc180 via cleavage of an intramolecular duplex. We also show that CJnc190 directly represses translation of the colonization factor PtmG by targeting a G-rich ribosome binding site, and uncover that CJnc180 is a cis-acting antagonist of CJnc190, indirectly affecting ptmG regulation. Our study highlights a role for RNase III in sRNA biogenesis and adds cis-encoded RNAs to the expanding diversity of transcripts that antagonize bacterial sRNAs.

Data availability

All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript or are provided as supporting data files (e.g., gel images).

The following previously published data sets were used

(2013) High-Resolution Transcriptome Maps Reveal Strain-Specific Regulatory Features of Multiple Campylobacter jejuni Isolates
GEO GSE38883.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE38883

Article and author information

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Sarah Lauren Svensson

Department of Molecular Infection Biology II, Institute of Molecular Infection Biology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Cynthia Mira Sharma

Department of Molecular Infection Biology II, Institute of Molecular Infection Biology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany

For correspondence
cynthia.sharma@uni-wuerzburg.de

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-2321-9705

Funding

Bavarian Research Network

Cynthia Mira Sharma

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

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This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.