title: An effort to make sense of antisense transcription in bacteria.
abstract: Analysis of bacterial transcriptomes have shown the existence of a genome-wide process of overlapping transcription due to the presence of antisense RNAs, as well as mRNAs that overlapped in their entire length or in some portion of the 5'- and 3'-UTR regions. The biological advantages of such overlapping transcription are unclear but may play important regulatory roles at the level of transcription, RNA stability and translation. In a recent report, the human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus is observed to generate genome-wide overlapping transcription in the same bacterial cells leading to a collection of short RNA fragments generated by the endoribonuclease III, RNase III. This processing appears most prominently in Gram-positive bacteria. The implications of both the use of pervasive overlapping transcription and the processing of these double stranded templates into short RNAs are explored and the consequences discussed.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Microbial Biofilms, Idab-CSIC-Universidad Pública de Navarra-Gobierno de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain. ilasa@unavarra.es
authors.forename: Iñigo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Lasa
authors.forename: Alejandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Toledo-Arana
authors.forename: Thomas R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Gingeras
mesh_terms: D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D006094:Gram-Positive Bacteria / Q000235:genetics; D012323:RNA Processing, Post-Transcriptional; D020871:RNA Stability; D016372:RNA, Antisense / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D012329:RNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D043244:Ribonuclease III / Q000378:metabolism; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D016372:RNA, Antisense; D012329:RNA, Bacterial; D043244:Ribonuclease III