Identification of bacterial small RNAs by RNA sequencing.

Small regulatory RNAs (sRNAs) in bacteria are known to modulate gene expression and control a variety of processes including metabolic reactions, stress responses, and pathogenesis in response to environmental signals. A method to identify bacterial sRNAs on a genome-wide scale based on RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) is described that involves the preparation and analysis of three different sequencing libraries. As a significant number of unique sRNAs are identified in each library, the libraries can be used either alone or in combination to increase the number of sRNAs identified. The approach may be applied to identify sRNAs in any bacterium under different growth and stress conditions.