Sequence-Based Analysis Uncovers an Abundance of Non-Coding RNA in the Total Transcriptome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

PLoS Pathogens

Kristine B. Arnvig¹  Graham Rose¹  Iñaki Comas¹  Joanna Houghton¹  Douglas B. Young¹  Helena I. Boshoff²  Nicholas J. Croucher³  Timothy T. Perkins³  Nicholas R. Thomson³  Gordon Dougan³  Julian Parkhill³ 

[1] Division of Mycobacterial Research, MRC National Institute for Medical Research, London, United Kingdom;NIAID, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America;The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Cambridge, United Kingdom

关键词: Mycobacterium tuberculosis;    Transcriptome analysis;    Gene expression;    RNA sequencing;    Messenger RNA;    5' UTR;    Ribosomal RNA;    DNA transcription;   

DOI  :  10.1371/journal.ppat.1002342

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Public Library of Science

【 摘 要 】

RNA sequencing provides a new perspective on the genome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis by revealing an extensive presence of non-coding RNA, including long 5’ and 3’ untranslated regions, antisense transcripts, and intergenic small RNA (sRNA) molecules. More than a quarter of all sequence reads mapping outside of ribosomal RNA genes represent non-coding RNA, and the density of reads mapping to intergenic regions was more than two-fold higher than that mapping to annotated coding sequences. Selected sRNAs were found at increased abundance in stationary phase cultures and accumulated to remarkably high levels in the lungs of chronically infected mice, indicating a potential contribution to pathogenesis. The ability of tubercle bacilli to adapt to changing environments within the host is critical to their ability to cause disease and to persist during drug treatment; it is likely that novel post-transcriptional regulatory networks will play an important role in these adaptive responses.

【 授权许可】

CC BY