Abstract
The untranslated regions (UTRs) of mRNA contain important features that are relevant to the post-transcriptional and translational regulation of gene expression. Most studies of bacterial UTRs have focused on the 5′regions; however, 3′UTRs have recently emerged as a new class of post-transcriptional regulatory elements. 3′UTRs were found to regulate the decay and translation initiation in their own mRNAs. In addition, 3′UTRs constitute a rich reservoir of small regulatory RNAs, regulating target gene expression. In the current review, we describe several recently discovered examples of bacterial regulatory 3′UTRs, discuss their modes of action, and illustrate how they facilitate gene regulation in various environments.
Highlights
Environmental conditions experienced by free-living organisms, such as nutrient availability, temperature, oxygen, pH, and osmolarity, frequently change
3 untranslated regions (UTRs) were found to be involved in post-transcriptional gene regulation in bacteria as well (Figure 1). 3 UTRs especially long 3 UTRs can be cleaved by ribonuclease to initiate mRNA decay (Figure 1A)
Since ca.40–50 nt is a sufficient length for a transcriptional terminator (Ruiz de los Mozos et al, 2013), additional regulatory elements are predicted to exist in these long 3 UTRs
Summary
Environmental conditions experienced by free-living organisms, such as nutrient availability, temperature, oxygen, pH, and osmolarity, frequently change. 3 UTRs regulate gene transcription by modulating mRNA decay, translation, or localization, and these processes have been well studied (St Johnston, 1995; Pesole et al, 2001; Wilkie et al, 2003; Barreau et al, 2005). It was traditionally believed, that bacterial 3 UTRs mainly contain transcriptional terminators, which are either Rho-dependent or Rho-independent. 3 UTRs were found to be involved in post-transcriptional gene regulation in bacteria as well (Figure 1). 3 UTRs especially long 3 UTRs can be cleaved by ribonuclease to initiate mRNA decay (Figure 1A)
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