School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, 443 Huangshan Road, Hefei, Anhui Province 230027, China.
Nat Commun. 2012;3:1073. doi: 10.1038/ncomms2071.
Food and other environmental factors affect gene expression and behaviour of animals. Differences in bacterial food affect the behaviour and longevity of Caenorhabditis elegans. However, no research has been carried out to investigate whether bacteria could utilize endogenous RNAs to affect C. elegans physiology. Here we show that two Escherichia coli endogenous noncoding RNAs, OxyS and DsrA, impact on the physiology of C. elegans. OxyS downregulates che-2, leading to impairment in C. elegans chemosensory behaviour and DsrA suppresses diacylglycerol lipase gene F42G9.6, leading to a decrease in longevity. We also examine some genes in the C. elegans RNA interference pathway for their possible involvement in the effects of OxyS and DsrA. Other bacteria, such as Bacillus mycoides, may also utilize its noncoding RNAs to interfere with gene expression in C. elegans. Our results demonstrate that E. coli noncoding RNAs can regulate gene expression and physiological conditions of C. elegans and indicate that noncoding RNAs might have interspecies ecological roles.
食物和其他环境因素会影响动物的基因表达和行为。不同的细菌食物会影响秀丽隐杆线虫的行为和寿命。然而，目前还没有研究调查细菌是否可以利用内源性 RNA 来影响秀丽隐杆线虫的生理学。在这里，我们表明，两种大肠杆菌内源性非编码 RNA，OxyS 和 DsrA，会影响秀丽隐杆线虫的生理学。OxyS 下调 che-2，导致秀丽隐杆线虫的化学感觉行为受损，而 DsrA 抑制二酰基甘油脂肪酶基因 F42G9.6，导致寿命缩短。我们还研究了秀丽隐杆线虫 RNA 干扰途径中的一些基因，以确定它们是否参与了 OxyS 和 DsrA 的作用。其他细菌，如粘质沙雷氏菌，也可能利用其非编码 RNA 来干扰秀丽隐杆线虫的基因表达。我们的结果表明，大肠杆菌非编码 RNA 可以调节秀丽隐杆线虫的基因表达和生理状况，并表明非编码 RNA 可能具有种间生态作用。
