Characterisation of a novel bacterial ribonucleoprotein complex analogous to eukaryotic processing (P) bodies in Escherichia coli

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Bacteria need nutrients to grow. However, in the environment or in the human body, bacterial growth is often compromised by nutrient limitation. Hence, bacteria spend the majority of their time in a starved and thus non-growing state. The processes that allow bacteria to cope with nutrient starvation begin with the synthesis of RNA - the first step in the reaction that switches on genes. Therefore, it is important to understand how the RNA, once synthesized, is managed to allow bacterial cope with nutrient starvation. This will allow us design novel interventional strategies to combat disease causing bacteria. In this project, since nitrogen represents an essential element of most molecules in the bacterial cell, we will use nitrogen starvation as a model nutrient stress to study in detail, how the bacterium Escherichia coli manages RNA. In particular, we will study in detail a novel 'site of RNA storage' in the E. coli, which we discovered to play an important role in how E. coli copes with nitrogen starvation. We posit that this 'site of RNA storage' could be akin to a similar feature, called the P-body, which is often formed in stressed cells found in our bodies and that of other animals. In summary, the results of this project will advance our fundamental knowledge of how the bacterial cell functions and thereby provide us with the much-needed new information and inspiration to control disease causing bacteria.