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A translational riboswitch coordinates nascent transcription-translation coupling.

ABSTRACT: Bacterial messenger RNA (mRNA) synthesis by RNA polymerase (RNAP) and first-round translation by the ribosome are often coupled to regulate gene expression, yet how coupling is established and maintained is ill understood. Here, we develop biochemical and single-molecule fluorescence approaches to probe the dynamics of RNAP-ribosome interactions on an mRNA with a translational preQ₁-sensing riboswitch in its 5' untranslated region. Binding of preQ₁ leads to the occlusion of the ribosome binding site (RBS), inhibiting translation initiation. We demonstrate that RNAP poised within the mRNA leader region promotes ribosomal 30S subunit binding, antagonizing preQ₁-induced RBS occlusion, and that the RNAP-30S bridging transcription factors NusG and RfaH distinctly enhance 30S recruitment and retention, respectively. We further find that, while 30S-mRNA interaction significantly impedes RNAP in the absence of translation, an actively translating ribosome promotes productive transcription. A model emerges wherein mRNA structure and transcription factors coordinate to dynamically modulate the efficiency of transcription-translation coupling.

SUBMITTER: Chatterjee S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8072259 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Cyanobacteria are the only model circadian clock system in which a circadian oscillator can be reconstituted in vitro. The underlying circadian mechanism appears to comprise two subcomponents: a post-translational oscillator (PTO) and a transcriptional/translational feedback loop (TTFL). The PTO and TTFL have been hypothesized to operate as dual oscillator systems in cyanobacteria. However, we find that they have a definite hierarchical interdependency-the PTO is the core pacemaker while the TTFL is a slave oscillator that quickly damps when the PTO stops. By analysis of overexpression experiments and mutant clock proteins, we find that the circadian system is dependent upon the PTO and that suppression of the PTO leads to damped TTFL-based oscillations whose temperature compensation is not stable under different metabolic conditions. Mathematical modeling indicates that the experimental data are compatible with a core PTO driving the TTFL; the combined PTO/TTFL system is resilient to noise. Moreover, the modeling indicates a mechanism by which the TTFL can feed into the PTO such that new synthesis of clock proteins can phase-shift or entrain the core PTO pacemaker. This prediction was experimentally tested and confirmed by entraining the in vivo circadian system with cycles of new clock protein synthesis that modulate the phosphorylation status of the clock proteins in the PTO. In cyanobacteria, the PTO is the self-sustained core pacemaker that can operate independently of the TTFL, but the TTFL damps when the phosphorylation status of the PTO is clamped. However, the TTFL can provide entraining input into the PTO. This study is the first to our knowledge to experimentally and theoretically investigate the dynamics of a circadian clock in which a PTO is coupled to a TTFL. These results have important implications for eukaryotic clock systems in that they can explain how a TTFL could appear to be a core circadian clockwork when in fact the true pacemaker is an embedded biochemical oscillator.

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A translational riboswitch coordinates nascent transcription-translation coupling.

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