Spatial organization shapes the turnover of a bacterial transcriptome

Spatial organization of the transcriptome has emerged as a powerful means for regulating the post-transcriptional fate of RNA in eukaryotes; however, whether prokaryotes use RNA spatial organization as a mechanism for post-transcriptional regulation remains unclear. Here we used super-resolution microscopy to image the E. coli transcriptome and observed a genome-wide spatial organization of RNA: mRNAs encoding inner-membrane proteins are enriched at the membrane, whereas mRNAs encoding outer-membrane, cytoplasmic and periplasmic proteins are distributed throughout the cytoplasm. Membrane enrichment is caused by co-translational insertion of signal peptides recognized by the signal-recognition particle. Our time-resolved RNA-sequencing and live-cell super-resolution imaging experiments revealed a physiological consequence of this spatial organization and the underlying mechanism: membrane localization enhances degradation rates of inner-membrane-protein mRNAs by placing them in proximity to membrane-bound RNA degradation enzymes. Together, these results demonstrate that the bacterial transcriptome is spatially organized and that this organization shapes the posttranscriptional Spatial organization of the transcriptome has emerged as a powerful means for regulating the post-transcriptional fate of RNA in eukaryotes; however, whether prokaryotes use RNA spatial organization as a mechanism for post-transcriptional regulation remains unclear. Here we used super-resolution microscopy to image the E. coli transcriptome and observed a genome-wide spatial organization of RNA: mRNAs encoding inner-membrane proteins are enriched at the membrane, whereas mRNAs encoding outer-membrane, cytoplasmic and periplasmic proteins are distributed throughout the cytoplasm. Membrane enrichment is caused by co-translational insertion of signal peptides recognized by the signal-recognition particle. Our time-resolved RNA-sequencing and live-cell super-resolution imaging experiments revealed a physiological consequence of this spatial organization and the underlying mechanism: membrane localization enhances degradation rates of inner-membrane-protein mRNAs by placing them in proximity to membrane-bound RNA degradation enzymes. Together, these results demonstrate that the bacterial transcriptome is spatially organized and that this organization shapes the post-transcriptional dynamics of mRNAs. We measure mRNA half-lives by measuring calibrated RNA abundances as a function of time after treatment with the transcription initiation inhibitor rifampicin.