RNA-sequencing identifies new RNase III cleavage sites in E. coli and reveals increased regulation of mRNA

In this study, we performed RNA-sequencing on an E. coli model system to confirm known sites, identify novel targets, and determine the impact of RNase III cleavage events on transcript degradation and metabolic phenotypes. To find cleavage sites, we compared the abundance of sequencing reads across the transcriptome of a wild-type E. coli and an rnc- deletion mutant. The RNA-sequencing approach provided wider coverage and unprecedented resolution of mRNA abundance at each position in the transcriptome compared to prior studies that used qPCR, Northern blots, or microarrays. In addition to data collected from exponentially growing cells, we observed the effects of RNase III cleavage on transcript degradation by collecting samples in a time course after stopping nascent transcription with rifampicin. This work was supported by the Department of Energy Grant DE-SC0010329 Examination of RNA-seq read coverage between a strain with and without RNase III throughout time after preventing nascent transcription with rifampicin; partial biological replicate of WT