Faculty of Biology, Institute of Biology III, Genetics and Experimental Bionformatics,University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
Microbiol Mol Biol Rev. 2011 Jun;75(2):286-300. doi: 10.1128/MMBR.00032-10.
A substantial amount of antisense transcription is a hallmark of gene expression in eukaryotes. However, antisense transcription was first demonstrated in bacteria almost 50 years ago. The transcriptomes of bacteria as different as Helicobacter pylori, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Synechocystis sp. strain PCC6803, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Sinorhizobium meliloti, Geobacter sulfurreducens, Vibrio cholerae, Chlamydia trachomatis, Pseudomonas syringae, and Staphylococcus aureus have now been reported to contain antisense RNA (asRNA) transcripts for a high percentage of genes. Bacterial asRNAs share functional similarities with trans-acting regulatory RNAs, but in addition, they use their own distinct mechanisms. Among their confirmed functional roles are transcription termination, codegradation, control of translation, transcriptional interference, and enhanced stability of their respective target transcripts. Here, we review recent publications indicating that asRNAs occur as frequently in simple unicellular bacteria as they do in higher organisms, and we provide a comprehensive overview of the experimentally confirmed characteristics of asRNA actions and intimately linked quantitative aspects. Emerging functional data suggest that asRNAs in bacteria mediate a plethora of effects and are involved in far more processes than were previously anticipated. Thus, the functional impact of asRNAs should be considered when developing new strategies against pathogenic bacteria and when optimizing bacterial strains for biotechnology.
大量的反义转录是真核生物基因表达的一个标志。然而，反义转录早在 50 年前就在细菌中首次得到证实。像幽门螺杆菌、枯草芽孢杆菌、大肠杆菌、集胞藻 PCC6803、肺炎支原体、根瘤菌、脱硫杆菌、霍乱弧菌、沙眼衣原体、丁香假单胞菌和金黄色葡萄球菌等不同的细菌的转录组现在都被报道含有反义 RNA(asRNA)转录本，这些转录本涵盖了相当高比例的基因。细菌的 asRNA 与反式作用调节 RNA 具有功能相似性，但除此之外，它们还使用自己独特的机制。它们已被证实的功能作用包括转录终止、共降解、控制翻译、转录干扰和提高各自靶标转录本的稳定性。在这里，我们回顾了最近的出版物，这些出版物表明，asRNA 在简单的单细胞细菌中的出现频率与在高等生物中一样高，并提供了 asRNA 作用的经过实验证实的特征和紧密相关的定量方面的全面概述。新兴的功能数据表明，细菌中的 asRNA 介导了大量的效应，并参与了比以前预期更多的过程。因此，在开发针对病原菌的新策略和优化生物技术用细菌菌株时，应该考虑到 asRNA 的功能影响。
