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Journal of Bacteriology, October 2005, p. 6641-6650, Vol. 187, No. 19
0021-9193/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.187.19.6641-6650.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Small Untranslated RNA Antitoxin in Bacillus subtilis{dagger}

Jessica M. Silvaggi,1 John B. Perkins,2 and Richard Losick1*

Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, The Biological Laboratories, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138,1 DSM Nutritional Products, Ltd., Biotechnology R&D, P.O. Box 3255, Building 203/20A, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland2

Received 27 May 2005/ Accepted 7 July 2005

Toxin-antitoxin (TA) modules are pairs of genes in which one member encodes a toxin that is neutralized or whose synthesis is prevented by the action of the product of the second gene, an antitoxin, which is either protein or RNA. We now report the identification of a TA module in the chromosome of Bacillus subtilis in which the antitoxin is an antisense RNA. The antitoxin, which is called RatA (for RNA antitoxin A), is a small (222 nucleotides), untranslated RNA that blocks the accumulation of the mRNA for a toxic peptide TxpA (for toxic peptide A; formerly YqdB). The txpA and ratA genes are in convergent orientation and overlap by ca. 75 nucleotides, such that the 3' region of ratA is complementary to the 3' region of txpA. Deletion of ratA led to increased levels of txpA mRNA and lysis of the cells. Overexpression of txpA also caused cell lysis and death, a phenotype that was prevented by simultaneous overexpression of ratA. We propose that the ratA transcript is an antisense RNA that anneals to the 3' end of the txpA mRNA, thereby triggering its degradation.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, The Biological Laboratories, 16 Divinity Ave., Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138. Phone: (617) 495-4905. Fax: (617) 496-4642. E-mail: Losick{at}mcb.harvard.edu.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://jb.asm.org/.

Journal of Bacteriology, October 2005, p. 6641-6650, Vol. 187, No. 19
0021-9193/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.187.19.6641-6650.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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