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J Bacteriol, April 1998, p. 1920-1928, Vol. 180, No. 7
0021-9193/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

The Escherichia coli mrsC Gene Is Required for Cell Growth and mRNA Decay

Laurie L. Granger, Eileen B. O'Hara, Rong-Fu Wang,dagger Frances V. Meffen, Katherine Armstrong,Dagger Stephanie D. Yancey,§ Paul Babitzke,par and Sidney R. Kushner*

Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-7223

Received 29 September 1997/Accepted 28 January 1998

We have identified a gene in Escherichia coli that is required for both the normal decay of mRNA and RNA synthesis. Originally designated mrsC (mRNA stability), the mrsC505 mutation described here is, in fact, an allele of the hflB/ftsH locus (R.-F. Wang et al., J. Bacteriol. 180:1929-1938, 1998). Strains carrying the thermosensitive mrsC505 allele stopped growing soon after the temperature was shifted to 44°C but remained viable for several hours. Net RNA synthesis stopped within 20 min after the shift, while DNA and protein synthesis continued for over 60 min. At 44°C, the half-life of total pulse-labeled RNA rose from 2.9 min in a wild-type strain to 5.9 min in the mrsC505 single mutant. In an rne-1 mrsC505 double mutant, the average half-life was 19.8 min. Inactivating mrsC significantly increased the half-lives of the trxA, cat, secG, and kan mRNAs, particularly in an mrsC505 pnp-7 rnb-500 rne-1 multiple mutant. In addition, Northern analysis showed dramatic stabilizations of full-length mRNAs in a variety of mrsC505 multiple mutants at 44°C. These results suggest that MrsC, directly or indirectly, controls endonucleolytic processing of mRNAs that may be independent of the RNase E-PNPase-RhlB multiprotein complex.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Genetics, Life Sciences Building, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-7223. Phone: (706) 542-8000. Fax: (706) 542-3910. E-mail: skushner{at}uga.cc.uga.edu.

dagger Present address: Surgery Branch, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892.

Dagger Present address: Dow Elanco, Indianapolis, IN 46268.

§ Present address: Beckman Instruments Inc., Fullerton, CA 92634.

par Present address: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802.




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