title: Translational regulation of the Escherichia coli stress factor RpoS: a role for SsrA and Lon.
abstract: Escherichia coli cell viability during starvation is strongly dependent on the expression of the rpoS gene, encoding the RpoS sigma subunit of RNA polymerase. RpoS abundance has been reported to be regulated at many levels, including transcription initiation, translation, and protein stability. The regulatory RNA SsrA (or tmRNA) has both tRNA and mRNA activities, relieving ribosome stalling and cotranslationally tagging proteins. We report here that SsrA is needed for the correct high-level translation of RpoS. The ATP-dependent protease Lon was also found to negatively affect RpoS translation, but only at low temperature. We suggest that SsrA may indirectly improve RpoS translation by limiting ribosome stalling and depletion of some component of the translation machinery.
authors: Laboratory of Molecular Biology, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892-4264, USA.
authors: Caroline
authors: C
authors: Ranquet
authors: Susan
authors: S
authors: Gottesman
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D015153:Blotting, Western; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D009154:Mutation; D049070:Protease La / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis; D012329:RNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012808:Sigma Factor / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D012329:RNA, Bacterial; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D012808:Sigma Factor; C069567:sigma factor KatF protein, Bacteria; C096222:tmRNA; C483567:Lon protein, E coli; D049070:Protease La