• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.72-75
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• 2007

Using co-immunoprecipitation, we identified proteins interacting with Streptomyces coelicolor RNase ES, an ortholog of Escherichia coli RNase E that plays a major role in RNA decay and processing. Polyphosphate kinase and a homolog of exoribonuclease polynucleotide phosphorylase, guanosine pentaphosphate synthetase I that use inorganic phophate were co-precipitated with RNase E, indicating a possibility of S. coelicolor RNase ES to form a multiprotein complex called degradosome, which has been shown to be formed by RNase E in E. coli. Polynucleotide phophorylase proteins from these two phylogenetically distantly related bacteria species showed similar RNA cleavage action in vitro. These results imply the ability of RNase ES to form a multiprotein complex that has structurally and functionally similar to that of E. coli degradosome.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.229-232
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• 2010

Enolase is one of the glycolytic enzymes, which are involved in a central energy metabolism present in nearly all organisms. In Escherichia coli, enolase constitutes RNA degradosome with RNase E, PNPase and RNA helicase, which are involved in most mRNA degradation and RNA processing. Recently, it has been reported that RNase G, an RNase E homolog, degrades eno mRNA. To examine a functional role of RNase G in enolase expression which is known to be up-regulated under microaerobic condition, we carried out experiments. Here, we report that expression levels of enolase and RNase G are not correlated under microaerobic condition. Based on this observation, we suggest the existence of an unknown factor(s) which regulate the activity of RNase G or enolase mRNA under microaerobic conditions.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.1353-1356
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• 2008

RNase E (Rne) plays a major role in the decay and processing of numerous RNAs in E. coli, and protein inhibitors of RNase E, RraA and RraB, have recently been discovered. Here, we report that coexpression of RraA or RraB reduces the ribonucleolytic activity in rne-deleted E. coli cells overproducing RNase ES, a Streptomyces coelicolor functional ortholog of RNase E, and consequently rescues these cells from growth arrest. These findings suggest that the regulators of ribonuclease activity have a conserved intrinsic property that effectively acts on an RNase E-like enzyme found in a distantly related bacterial species.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.223-227
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• 2010

RNase E plays a major role in the degradation and processing of a large number of RNA transcripts in Escherichia coli and forms the core component of the degradosome, a large protein complex involved in RNA metabolism. RraA and RraB are recently discovered protein inhibitors of RNase E and are evolutionarily conserved. In this study, we observed that, unlike RraA, overexpression of RraB did not rescue growth arrest of E. coli cells overexpressing RNase E. To examine whether this phenomenon stems from differential inhibitory effects of RraA and RraB on RNase E substrates, we analyzed three in vivo RNase E substrates. The results showed that RraA inhibited RNase E activity more efficiently than RraB on the degradation of RNA I, which controls the copy number of ColE1-type plasmid, and rpsO mRNA encoding ribosomal protein S15, while RraB was unable to inhibit the processing of pM1 RNA, a precursor of the RNA component of RNase P, by RNase E. Our results imply that RraB inhibits RNase E activity in a more substrate-dependent manner than RraA and this property of RraB may explain why overexpression of RraB could not rescue cells overexpressing RNase E from growth arrest.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.325-330
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• 2007

RNase E is an essential Escherichia coli endoribonuclease that plays a major role in the decay and processing of a large fraction of RNAs in the cell and expression of N-terminal domain consisted of 1-498 amino acids (N-Rne) is sufficient to support normal cellular growth. By utilizing these properties of RNase E, we developed a genetic system to screen for amino acid substitutions in the catalytic domain of the protein (N-Rne) that lead to various phenotypes. Using this system, we identified three kinds of mutants. A mutant N-Rne containing amino acid substitution in the S1 domain (I6T) of the protein was not able to support survival of E. coli cells, and another mutant N-Rne with amino acid substitution at the position 488 (R488C) in the small domain enabled N-Rne to have an elevated ribonucleolytic activity, while amino acid substitution in the DNase I domain (N305D) only enabled N-Rne to support survival of E. roli cells when the mutant N-Rne was over-expressed. Analysis of copy number of ColEl-type plasmid revealed that effects of amino acid substitution on the ability of N-Rne to support cellular growth stemmed from their differential effects on the ribonucleolytic activity of N-Rne in the cell. These results imply that the genetic system developed in this study can be used to isolate mutant RNase E with various phenotypes, which would help to unveil a functional role of each subdomain of the protein in the regulation of RNA stability in E. coli.