Structural analysis of regulatory RNAs: Hfq-mediated gene regulation by small trans-acting RNAs

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Small trans-acting RNAs (sRNA) play a major role in the post-transcriptional gene regulation in prokaryotes. sRNAs are assisted by the hexameric Sm-like protein Hfq that stabilizes them in vivo, promotes the interaction with their mRNA targets and triggers downstream processes. How this is achieved mechanistically is largely obscure. We will do reconstitution analyses and aim to obtain crystal structures of Hfq in complex with an sRNA or with an sRNA/mRNA hybrid. These structures should provide crucial mechanistic insight and should reveal conceptual parallels with the eukaryotic microRNA pathway as well as structural parallels with a recently determined crystal structure of a eukaryotic Sm-ring complexed to the U1snRNA.