Institute of Molecular Infection Biology, University of Würzburg, 97080 Würzburg, Germany.
Institute of Molecular Infection Biology, University of Würzburg, 97080 Würzburg, Germany; Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI), 97080 Würzburg, Germany.
Mol Cell. 2018 Jun 7;70(5):785-799. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2017.12.023. Epub 2018 Jan 18.
Bacteria are an exceedingly diverse group of organisms whose molecular exploration is experiencing a renaissance. While the classical view of bacterial gene expression was relatively simple, the emerging view is more complex, encompassing extensive post-transcriptional control involving riboswitches, RNA thermometers, and regulatory small RNAs (sRNAs) associated with the RNA-binding proteins CsrA, Hfq, and ProQ, as well as CRISPR/Cas systems that are programmed by RNAs. Moreover, increasing interest in members of the human microbiota and environmental microbial communities has highlighted the importance of understudied bacterial species with largely unknown transcriptome structures and RNA-based control mechanisms. Collectively, this creates a need for global RNA biology approaches that can rapidly and comprehensively analyze the RNA composition of a bacterium of interest. We review such approaches with a focus on RNA-seq as a versatile tool to investigate the different layers of gene expression in which RNA is made, processed, regulated, modified, translated, and turned over.
细菌是一类非常多样化的生物体，其分子研究正在经历复兴。虽然细菌基因表达的经典观点相对简单，但新兴的观点更为复杂，包括广泛的转录后控制，涉及核糖体开关、RNA 温度计和与 RNA 结合蛋白 CsrA、Hfq 和 ProQ 相关的调节小 RNA（sRNA），以及由 RNA 编程的 CRISPR/Cas 系统。此外，人们对人类微生物群和环境微生物群落成员的兴趣日益增加，凸显了研究较少的细菌物种的重要性，这些细菌物种的转录组结构和基于 RNA 的调控机制在很大程度上尚不清楚。总的来说，这就需要采用全球化的 RNA 生物学方法，以便快速而全面地分析目标细菌的 RNA 组成。我们重点介绍了 RNA-seq 等方法，因为它是一种功能强大的工具，可用于研究 RNA 产生、加工、调控、修饰、翻译和周转的不同层次的基因表达。
