The role of RNases in mRNA and rRNA processing in the human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Christiane Wolz
• Subject Area: Parasitology and Biology of Tropical Infectious Disease Pathogens
• Term: from 2009 to 2013
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 112927002

Bacteria are able to cope with dramatic environmental changes by rapidly altering gene expression. The maturation and degradation of RNA molecules are essential features in this regulation. The involved ribonucleases were mainly elucidated in the model organism Escherichia coli but in gram-positives the pathway of RNA degradation seems to be fundamentally different. We aim to discern RNA processing in the human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus using two model targets. First, we will focus on the global virulence regulator sae for which we could show that endonucleolytic cleavage leads to the origination of the major, very stable transcript. Especially we want to solve the questions which RNase is responsible for sae processing, what structural elements are necessary for cleavage, what influences the extraordinary transcript stability and what impact has processing on target gene expression? Since essentially the same enzymes are responsible for maturation of rRNA as for mRNA decay as a second model processing of the 16S rRNA will be studied. Global effects of RNases on the mRNA pool will be determined by microarray analysis. Our project will advance the understanding about the contribution of the RNA metabolism to the virulence potential of pathogenic bacteria.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Dr. Christiane Goerke