The rpsO mRNA of Escherichia coli is polyadenylated at multiple sites resulting from endonucleolytic processing and exonucleolytic degradation.

The rpsO monocistronic messenger, encoding ribosomal protein S15, is destabilized upon polyadenylation occurring at the hairpin structure of the transcription terminator t1. We report that mRNA fragments differing from the monocistronic transcript by their 3' termini are also polyadenylated in the absence of polynucleotide phosphorylase and RNase II. Some of these 3' extremities result from endonucleolytic cleavages by RNase E and RNase III and from exonucleolytic degradation. Most of these mRNA fragments are destabilized upon polyadenylation with the exception of the RNA species generated by RNase III. RNase E appears to reduce the amount of poly(A) added at the transcription terminator t1.