A possible role for the pcnB gene product of Escherichia coli in modulating RNA: RNA interactions.
The sequence of the PcnB protein of Escherichia coli, a protein required for copy number maintenance of ColE1-related plasmids, was compared with the PIR sequence database. Strong local similarities to the sequence of the E. coli protein tRNA nucleotidyltransferase were found. Since a substrate of the latter protein, tRNA, structurally resembles the RNAs that control ColE1 copy number we believe that we may have identified a region in PcnB that interacts with these RNAs. Consistent with this idea is our observation that PcnB is required for the replication of R1, a plasmid whose replication is also regulated by a small RNA.
Department of Molecular Biology, University of Edinburgh, UK.
M
M
Masters
J B
JB
March
I R
IR
Oliver
J F
JF
Collins
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D003086:Bacteriocin Plasmids; D004261:DNA Replication; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics*; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010957:Plasmids; D011062:Polynucleotide Adenylyltransferase; D012316:RNA Nucleotidyltransferases / Q000235:genetics; D012329:RNA, Bacterial / Q000378:metabolism*; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D012329:RNA, Bacterial; D012316:RNA Nucleotidyltransferases; D011062:Polynucleotide Adenylyltransferase; C063643:pcnB protein, E coli