Antisense regulation of Opa expression in Neisseria gonorrhoeae

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The sexually transmitted human pathogen Neisseria gonorrhoeae encodes a family of eleven outer membrane proteins named Opa which contribute to the adhesion to and invasion into host cells. Opa expression is subject to phase variation due to the presence of pentameric sequence repeats at the 5-end of the respective genes resulting in gonococcal populations whose members express different combinations of Opa proteins or no Opa proteins at all. Opa proteins are believed to play an important role in pathogenesis since isolates from human infection are predominantly Opa-positive. A recent transcriptome analysis of N. gonorrhoeae via RNA sequencing revealed massive antisense transcription from the opa gene loci. Based on the previous observation that full-length transcripts from out-of-frame opa genes are barely detectable in the cell we hypothesize that opa antisense transcription is limiting the wasteful accumulation and expression of out-of-frame opa mRNAs. In the present proposal we address the role of opa antisense RNAs in opa expression control and investigate the underlying regulatory mechanisms.