Characterization of a FourU RNA Thermometer in the 5' Untranslated Region of Autolysin Gene in the 168 Prophage SPβ.

RNA thermometers are noncoding RNA structures located in the 5' untranslated regions (UTRs) of genes that regulate gene expression through temperature-dependent conformational changes. The fourU class of RNA thermometers contains a specific motif in which four consecutive uracil nucleotides are predicted to base pair with the Shine-Dalgarno (SD) sequence in a stem. We employed a bioinformatic search to discover a fourU RNA thermometer in the 5'-UTR of the gene of the phage SPβc2, a bacteriophage that infects 168.