The Fate and Functionality of Alien tRNA Fragments in Culturing Medium and Cells of .

Numerous observations have supported the idea that various types of noncoding RNAs, including tRNA fragments (tRFs), are involved in communications between the host and its microbial community. The possibility of using their signaling function has stimulated the study of secreted RNAs, potentially involved in the interspecies interaction of bacteria. This work aimed at identifying such RNAs and characterizing their maturation during transport.

A cohabiting bacterium alters the spectrum of short RNAs secreted by Escherichia coli.

Recently, it has been found that bacteria secrete short RNAs able to affect gene expression in eukaryotic cells, while certain mammalian microRNAs shape the gut microbiome altering bacterial transcriptome. The involvement of bacterial RNAs in communication with other bacteria is also expected, but has not been documented yet. Here, we compared the fractions of extremely short (12-22 nucleotides) RNAs secreted by Escherichia coli grown in a pure culture and jointly with bacteria of the Paenibacillus genus.

Promoter islands as a platform for interaction with nucleoid proteins and transcription factors.

Seventy-eight promoter islands with an extraordinarily high density of potential promoters have been recently found in the genome of Escherichia coli. It has been shown that RNA polymerase binds internal promoters of these islands and produces short oligonucleotides, while the synthesis of normal mRNAs is suppressed. This quenching may be biologically relevant, as most islands are associated with foreign genes, which expression may deplete cellular resources.

Intragenic promotor-like sites in the genome of Escherichia coli discovery and functional implication.

Mapping of putative promoters within the entire genome of Escherichia coli (E. coli) by means of pattern-recognition software PlatProm revealed several thousand of sites having high probability to perform promoter function. Along with the expected promoters located upstream of coding sequences, PlatProm identified more than a thousand potential promoters for antisense transcription and several hundred very similar signals within coding sequences having the same direction with the genes.