Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230027, Anhui, China.
Med Microbiol Immunol. 2014 Feb;203(1):1-12. doi: 10.1007/s00430-013-0307-0. Epub 2013 Aug 18.
Recent studies point to the importance of small-noncoding RNAs (sRNAs) in bacterial virulence control. In Staphylococcus aureus, functional dissections of sRNAs are limited to RNA III, SprD, RsaE, SprA1, and SSR42 only. Here, we report the identification and functional analyses of a novel sRNA, which we have designated ArtR. Our data show that the AgrA protein can bind to the artR promoter and repress artR transcription, suggesting that, after RNA III, ArtR is the second sRNA regulated by AgrA. Furthermore, ArtR is unique in S. aureus and involved in virulence regulation by activating α-toxin expression. ArtR promotes the degradation of sarT mRNA by RNase III and arrests the translation of SarT by direct binding to the 5' untranslated region of the sarT mRNA, suggesting that the activation of ArtR on the α-toxin expression was through SarT. This study reveals another kind of staphylococcal regulatory small RNA that plays a role in virulence control. It also indicates the diversity of small RNA-target mRNA interactions and how these multiple interactions can mediate virulence regulation in this pathogen.
最近的研究表明，小非编码 RNA（sRNAs）在细菌毒力控制中具有重要作用。在金黄色葡萄球菌中，sRNAs 的功能解析仅限于 RNA III、SprD、RsaE、SprA1 和 SSR42。在这里，我们报告了一种新型 sRNA 的鉴定和功能分析，我们将其命名为 ArtR。我们的数据表明，AgrA 蛋白可以结合 artR 启动子并抑制 artR 转录，这表明在 RNA III 之后，ArtR 是第二个受 AgrA 调控的 sRNA。此外，ArtR 在金黄色葡萄球菌中是独特的，通过激活α-毒素表达参与毒力调节。ArtR 通过 RNase III 促进 sarT mRNA 的降解，并通过直接结合 sarT mRNA 的 5'非翻译区来阻止 SarT 的翻译，这表明 ArtR 对α-毒素表达的激活是通过 SarT 实现的。这项研究揭示了另一种在毒力控制中发挥作用的金黄色葡萄球菌调节性小 RNA。它还表明了小 RNA-靶 mRNA 相互作用的多样性，以及这些多种相互作用如何在这种病原体中介导毒力调节。
