Deletion of an sRNA primes development in a multicellular bacterium

Small non-coding RNAs (sRNAs) are essential in regulating gene expression during many biological processes. The myxobacteria gene pxr encodes an sRNA known to block fruiting-body development, an aggregative multicellular process triggered by starvation. Deletion of pxr allows Myxococcus xanthus cells to develop in the presence of nutrients. However, potential Pxr binding targets and most genes regulated by Pxr remain unknown. Here, we found that the absence of pxr expression dramatically alters the temporal dynamics of development, thus suggesting an important new role of this sRNA in myxobacterial ecology. We transcriptionally profiled vegetative cells of M. xanthus strains possessing vs lacking pxr and found that over half of the genes impacted by pxr deletion during growth are linked to development, including known and potentially novel critical regulators. Many other genes are associated with general metabolic processes, which Pxr regulates positively. Our study discovers new phenot..., RNA sequencing
Timelapse microscopy
Bacteria cell culture
Western blot analysis for protein detection
 
 , , # Deletion of an sRNA primes development in a multicellular bacteria.

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.xsj3tx9pn](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.xsj3tx9pn)

**The Supplementary Information consist of:**

* 6 **Supplementary Tables** - Supplementary Tables 1 to 6 in .xlsx format.
* 7 **Supplementary Network Images** - PDF files reporting all networks discussed in the study with a greater resolution.
* 3 **Supplementary Data** - 1 file in .xlsx format (Supp. Data 1. Developmental time WT-deltaPxr-deltaPxrA.xlsx), 1 file in .csv format (Supp. Data 2. M. xanthus gene annotation from UniProt.csv), and 1 image in .pdf format (Supp. Data 3. Original images of the blot membrane).
* 1 **Supplementary Code** - folder containing 1 R script (app.R), two dataframes in .xlsx format (data.xlsx and dev_data.xlsx)

## Description of the data and file structure

#### **Supplementary Tables**

**Supp. Table. 1.** Differential expression between WT and Δpxr. Colours refer to the sign of expression an...