Unexpected Richness of the Bacterial Small RNA World

Abstract

I stumbled onto a small RNA (sRNA) induced by oxidative stress when I did the “wrong” northern blot experiment as a second-year graduate student. I was so intrigued by the very strong induction of the 109 nt OxyS RNA that I kept working to elucidate its function while carrying out other projects. Over a decade after developing the first OxyS northern, I was able to document that the RNA acts as a regulator. This finding together with concurrent observations about the 91 nt DsrA RNA by Susan Gottesman’s group led to the realization that regulatory sRNAs were far more prevalent in bacteria than initially imagined. I do not think we could have anticipated how integral sRNAs are to regulatory networks in bacteria and how much we would learn about the mechanisms by which these sRNAs regulate gene expression, most commonly through limited base pairing with target mRNAs, chaperoned by the Hfq protein. Our work was greatly facilitated by the collegiality in the bacterial sRNA field and the regular discussions and collaborations between my group and the Gottesman group. Susan and I are both writing overviews but have agreed to emphasize different aspects of the investigation into bacterial sRNAs with the intent that our articles are read in parallel.