Project description:Transcriptomic analyses using high-throughput methods have revealed abundant antisense transcription in bacteria. Most frequently, antisense transcription is due to the overlap of mRNAs with long 5’ regions or 3’ ends that extend beyond the coding sequence. In addition, antisense RNAs that do not contain any coding sequence are also observed. Nostoc sp. PCC 7120 is a filamentous cyanobacterium that, under nitrogen limitation, behaves as a multicellular organism with division of labor among two different cell types that depend on each other, the vegetative CO2-fixing cells and the nitrogen-fixing heterocysts. Differentiation of heterocysts depends on the global nitrogen regulator NtcA and requires the specific regulator HetR. To identify antisense RNAs potentially involved in heterocyst differentiation we performed an RNA-Seq analysis of cells subjected to nitrogen limitation (either at 9 or 24 hours after nitrogen removal) and analyzed the results in combination with a genome-wide set of nitrogen-regulated transcriptional start sites and a prediction of transcriptional terminators. Our analysis resulted in the definition of a transcriptional map including more than 4,000 transcripts, 65% of them in antisense orientation to other transcripts. In addition to overlapping mRNAs we identified nitrogen-regulated non-coding antisense RNAs transcribed from NtcA-dependent or HetR-dependent promoters.
Project description:The ability of microbes to adapt to highly dynamic environments depends on subtle post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms. The interaction between antisense RNAs or small non-coding RNAs and their mRNA targets can alter their half-life, thereby playing a role in the adaptation to different physiological conditions. Here, we have used rifampicin, an antibiotic that inhibits transcription initiation, to estimate the half-life of all transcripts in Nostoc sp. PCC 7120, a heterocyst-forming cyanobacterium. The analysis of the rifampicin time-series under two different growth conditions has revealed new layers of post-transcriptional regulation that may include transcriptional interference events (collisions between two elongating RNA polymerases).
Project description:To investigate the function of All0854, we constructed the all0854 deletion mutant Mall0854, in which all0854 was knocked out by CRISPER-cpf1. We then performed gene expression profiling analysis using data obtained from RNA-seq of wide type Nostoc sp. PCC 7120 and Mall0854.
Project description:Proteogenomics analysis was employed to refine the genome annotation and provide new insights into nitrogen metabolism of Nostoc sp. PCC 7120.