Identification of sRNA binding to ITSmetZW and ITSmetWV using MS2-affinity purification coupled with RNA sequencing (MAPS) technology

During ribosomal and transfer RNA maturation, external transcribed spacer (ETS) and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences are excised and, as non-functional by-products, are rapidly degraded. The 3'ETS of the glyW-cysT-leuZ polycistronic tRNA precursor was highly and specifically enriched by co-purification with at least two different small regulatory RNAs (sRNAs), RyhB and RybB. Both sRNAs were shown to base pair with the same region in the 3'ETS of leuZ (3'ETSleuZ). Disrupting the pairing by mutating 3'ETSleuZ significantly increased the activity of sRNAs, even under non-inducing conditions. Our results indicate that 3'ETSleuZ prevents sRNA-dependent remodeling of tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle fluxes and increases antibiotic sensitivity when sRNAs are transcriptionally repressed. This suggests that 3'ETSleuZ functions as a sponge to absorb transcriptional noise from repressed sRNAs. Finally, the fact that RybB and MicF sRNAs are co-purified with ITSmetZ-metW and ITSmetW-metV strongly suggests a much broader phenomenon. Overall design: Identification of sRNAs co-purified with MS2-ITSmetZW and MS2-ITSmetWV. ITSmetZW and ITSmetWV (without MS2) were used as control