Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30605, USA.
Wiley Interdiscip Rev RNA. 2011 Mar-Apr;2(2):256-76. doi: 10.1002/wrna.51.
Although the first poly(A) polymerase (PAP) was discovered in Escherichia coli in 1962, the study of polyadenylation in bacteria was largely ignored for the next 30 years. However, with the identification of the structural gene for E. coli PAP I in 1992, it became possible to analyze polyadenylation using both biochemical and genetic approaches. Subsequently, it has been shown that polyadenylation plays a multifunctional role in prokaryotic RNA metabolism. Although the bulk of our current understanding of prokaryotic polyadenylation comes from studies on E. coli, recent limited experiments with Cyanobacteria, organelles, and Archaea have widened our view on the diversity, complexity, and universality of the polyadenylation process. For example, the identification of polynucleotide phosphorylase (PNPase), a reversible phosphorolytic enzyme that is highly conserved in bacteria, as an additional PAP in E. coli caught everyone by surprise. In fact, PNPase has now been shown to be the source of post-transcriptional RNA modifications in a wide range of cells of prokaryotic origin including those that lack a eubacterial PAP homolog. Accordingly, the past few years have witnessed increased interest in the mechanism and role of post-transcriptional modifications in all species of prokaryotic origin. However, the fact that many of the poly(A) tails are very short and unstable as well as the presence of polynucleotide tails has posed significant technical challenges to the scientific community trying to unravel the mystery of polyadenylation in prokaryotes. This review discusses the current state of knowledge regarding polyadenylation and its functions in bacteria, organelles, and Archaea.
尽管 1962 年在大肠杆菌中首次发现了第一个多聚（A）聚合酶（PAP），但在接下来的 30 年里，细菌中多聚腺苷酸化的研究基本上被忽视了。然而，随着 1992 年鉴定出大肠杆菌 PAP I 的结构基因，人们可以使用生化和遗传方法来分析多聚腺苷酸化。随后，研究表明多聚腺苷酸化在原核 RNA 代谢中具有多种功能。尽管我们目前对原核多聚腺苷酸化的大部分理解来自于对大肠杆菌的研究，但最近对蓝藻、细胞器和古菌的有限实验拓宽了我们对多聚腺苷酸化过程多样性、复杂性和普遍性的认识。例如，多核苷酸磷酸化酶（PNPase）的鉴定，一种在细菌中高度保守的可逆磷酸化酶，作为大肠杆菌中的另一种 PAP，令人惊讶。事实上，PNPase 现已被证明是原核起源的广泛细胞中转录后 RNA 修饰的来源，包括缺乏真核 PAP 同源物的细胞。因此，过去几年，人们对所有原核生物中转录后修饰的机制和作用产生了浓厚的兴趣。然而，许多多聚（A）尾巴非常短且不稳定，以及多核苷酸尾巴的存在，给试图揭开原核生物多聚腺苷酸化之谜的科学界带来了重大技术挑战。本文综述了目前关于细菌、细胞器和古菌中多聚腺苷酸化及其功能的知识状况。
