TY - JOUR
T1 - Degradation of RNA in bacteria
T2 - Comparison of mRNA and stable RNA
AU - Deutscher, Murray P.
N1 - Funding Information:
I thank Drs Y. Zuo and C. Jain and members of my laboratory for many helpful suggestions. This work was supported by grant GM16317 from the National Institutes of Health. The Open Access publication charges for this article were waived by Oxford University Press.
PY - 2006/2
Y1 - 2006/2
N2 - Degradation of RNA plays a central role in RNA metabolism. In recent years, our knowledge of the mechanisms of RNA degradation has increased considerably with discovery of the participating RNases and analysis of mutants affected in the various degradative pathways. Among these processes, mRNA decay and stable RNA degradation generally have been considered distinct, and also separate from RNA maturation. In this review, each of these processes is described, as it is currently understood in bacteria. The picture that emerges is that decay of mRNA and degradation of stable RNA share many common features, and that their initial steps also overlap with those of RNA maturation. Thus, bacterial cells do not contain dedicated machinery for degradation of different classes of RNA or for different processes. Rather, only the specificity of the RNase and the accessibility of the substrate determine whether or not a particular RNA will be acted upon.
AB - Degradation of RNA plays a central role in RNA metabolism. In recent years, our knowledge of the mechanisms of RNA degradation has increased considerably with discovery of the participating RNases and analysis of mutants affected in the various degradative pathways. Among these processes, mRNA decay and stable RNA degradation generally have been considered distinct, and also separate from RNA maturation. In this review, each of these processes is described, as it is currently understood in bacteria. The picture that emerges is that decay of mRNA and degradation of stable RNA share many common features, and that their initial steps also overlap with those of RNA maturation. Thus, bacterial cells do not contain dedicated machinery for degradation of different classes of RNA or for different processes. Rather, only the specificity of the RNase and the accessibility of the substrate determine whether or not a particular RNA will be acted upon.
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U2 - 10.1093/nar/gkj472
DO - 10.1093/nar/gkj472
M3 - Article
C2 - 16452296
AN - SCOPUS:32644435694
VL - 34
SP - 659
EP - 666
JO - Nucleic Acids Research
JF - Nucleic Acids Research
SN - 0305-1048
IS - 2
ER -