The role of RNases in mRNA and rRNA processing in the human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus

细菌能够通过快速改变基因表达来应对剧烈的环境变化。RNA分子的成熟和降解是这一调控的基本特征。所涉及的核糖核酸酶主要在模式生物大肠杆菌中阐明，但在革兰氏阳性菌中，RNA降解的途径似乎有根本的不同。我们的目标是使用两个模型靶来识别人类病原体金黄色葡萄球菌中的RNA加工。首先，我们将关注全球毒力调节因子SAE，为此我们可以证明内切核导致了主要的、非常稳定的转录本的起源。尤其是我们想要解决的问题是，核糖核酸酶负责SAE的加工，切割需要哪些结构元件，是什么影响了转录的稳定性，加工对靶基因的表达有什么影响？由于基本上相同的酶负责成熟的rRNA和mRNA的衰退作为第二个模型，将研究16S rRNA的处理。RNA酶对信使核糖核酸库的整体影响将通过微阵列分析来确定。我们的项目将促进人们对RNA代谢对病原菌毒力潜力的贡献的理解。

Bacteria are able to cope with dramatic environmental changes by rapidly altering gene expression. The maturation and degradation of RNA molecules are essential features in this regulation. The involved ribonucleases were mainly elucidated in the model organism Escherichia coli but in gram-positives the pathway of RNA degradation seems to be fundamentally different. We aim to discern RNA processing in the human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus using two model targets. First, we will focus on the global virulence regulator sae for which we could show that endonucleolytic cleavage leads to the origination of the major, very stable transcript. Especially we want to solve the questions which RNase is responsible for sae processing, what structural elements are necessary for cleavage, what influences the extraordinary transcript stability and what impact has processing on target gene expression? Since essentially the same enzymes are responsible for maturation of rRNA as for mRNA decay as a second model processing of the 16S rRNA will be studied. Global effects of RNases on the mRNA pool will be determined by microarray analysis. Our project will advance the understanding about the contribution of the RNA metabolism to the virulence potential of pathogenic bacteria.