title: Pervasive transcription: detecting functional RNAs in bacteria.
abstract: Pervasive, or genome-wide, transcription has been reported in all domains of life. In bacteria, most pervasive transcription occurs antisense to protein-coding transcripts, although recently a new class of pervasive RNAs was identified that originates from within annotated genes. Initially considered to be non-functional transcriptional noise, pervasive transcription is increasingly being recognized as important in regulating gene expression. The function of pervasive transcription is an extensively debated question in the field of transcriptomics and regulatory RNA biology. Here, we highlight the most recent contributions addressing the purpose of pervasive transcription in bacteria and discuss their implications.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology ; Max F Perutz Laboratories; University of Vienna ; Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Meghan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lybecker
authors.forename: Ivana
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Bilusic
authors.forename: Rahul
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Raghavan
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D035001:Host Factor 1 Protein / Q000378:metabolism; D012323:RNA Processing, Post-Transcriptional; D016372:RNA, Antisense / Q000378:metabolism; D012329:RNA, Bacterial / Q000378:metabolism*; D043244:Ribonuclease III / Q000378:metabolism; D012808:Sigma Factor / Q000378:metabolism; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D035001:Host Factor 1 Protein; D016372:RNA, Antisense; D012329:RNA, Bacterial; D012808:Sigma Factor; D043244:Ribonuclease III
keywords: Hfq; RNA; RNase III; antisense transcription; asRNA; asRNA, antisense RNA; double-stranded RNA; dsRNA, double-stranded RNA; intraRNA, intragenic RNA; ncRNA, non-coding RNA; pervasive transcription; promoter; sigma factor; spurious transcription; transcriptome