Centre for Synthetic and Systems Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, UK.
FEBS J. 2022 Apr;289(7):1746-1764. doi: 10.1111/febs.15810. Epub 2021 Mar 25.
Bacteria are constantly subjected to stressful conditions, such as antibiotic exposure, nutrient limitation and oxidative stress. For pathogenic bacteria, adapting to the host environment, escaping defence mechanisms and coping with antibiotic stress are crucial for their survival and the establishment of a successful infection. Stress adaptation relies heavily on the rate at which the organism can remodel its gene expression programme to counteract the stress. RNA-binding proteins mediating co- and post-transcriptional regulation have recently emerged as important players in regulating gene expression during adaptive responses. Most of the research on these layers of gene expression regulation has been done in Gram-negative model organisms where, thanks to a wide variety of global studies, large post-transcriptional regulatory networks have been uncovered. Unfortunately, our understanding of post-transcriptional regulation in Gram-positive bacteria is lagging behind. One possible explanation for this is that many proteins employed by Gram-negative bacteria are not well conserved in Gram-positives. And even if they are conserved, they do not always play similar roles as in Gram-negative bacteria. This raises the important question whether Gram-positive bacteria regulate gene expression in a significantly different way. The goal of this review was to discuss this in more detail by reviewing the role of well-known RNA-binding proteins in Gram-positive bacteria and by highlighting their different behaviours with respect to some of their Gram-negative counterparts. Finally, the second part of this review introduces several unusual RNA-binding proteins of Gram-positive species that we believe could also play an important role in adaptive responses.
细菌经常处于应激状态，如抗生素暴露、营养限制和氧化应激。对于致病性细菌来说，适应宿主环境、逃避防御机制和应对抗生素压力对于它们的生存和成功感染至关重要。应激适应很大程度上依赖于生物体能够重塑其基因表达程序以对抗应激的速度。近年来，介导共转录和转录后调控的 RNA 结合蛋白已成为调节适应反应中基因表达的重要因素。这些基因表达调控层的大部分研究都是在革兰氏阴性模式生物中进行的，由于广泛的全局研究，已经揭示了大量的转录后调控网络。不幸的是，我们对革兰氏阳性菌中转录后调控的理解落后了。造成这种情况的一个可能原因是，革兰氏阴性菌中使用的许多蛋白质在革兰氏阳性菌中不能很好地保守。即使它们保守，它们在革兰氏阴性菌中的作用也不一定相同。这就提出了一个重要的问题，即革兰氏阳性菌是否以显著不同的方式调节基因表达。本综述的目的是通过综述革兰氏阳性菌中已知的 RNA 结合蛋白的作用，并突出它们在某些革兰氏阴性对应物方面的不同行为，更详细地讨论这一点。最后，本综述的第二部分介绍了几种革兰氏阳性物种的不寻常 RNA 结合蛋白，我们认为它们也可能在适应反应中发挥重要作用。
