Mycobactierum tuberculosis contains at least nine small RNA families in its genome.[1] The small RNA (sRNA) families were identified through RNomics - the direct analysis of RNA molecules isolated from cultures of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.[2][3] The sRNAs were characterised through RACE mapping and Northern blot experiments.[1] Secondary structures of the sRNAs were predicted using Mfold.[4]
sRNAPredict2 - a bioinformatics tool - suggested 56 putative sRNAs in M. tuberculosis, though these have yet to be verified experimentally.[5] Hfq protein homologues have yet to be found in M. tuberculosis;[6] an alternative pathway - potentially involving conserved C-rich motifs - has been theorised to enable trans-acting sRNA functionality.[1]
sRNAs were shown to have important physiological roles in M. tuberculosis. Overexpression of G2 sRNA, for example, prevented growth of M. tuberculosis and greatly reduced the growth of M. smegmatis; ASdes sRNA is thought to be a cis-acting regulator of a fatty acid desaturase (desA2) while ASpks is found with the open reading frame for Polyketide synthase-12 (pks12) and is an antisense regulator of pks12 mRNA.[1]
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