Structural and sequence requirements for the antisense RNA regulating replication of staphylococcal multiresistance plasmid pSK41

In this study, enzymatic probing was used to verify the predicted secondary structures of RNAI and its target RNA. We demonstrated that two stem-loop structures of RNAI, SLRNAI-II and SLRNAI-III, were important for inhibition. A putative U-turn motif detected in the loop of SL rep -I (5'–UUGG-3') was analysed for its significance to RNAI-mediated inhibition in vivo and Northern blotting suggested that rep mRNA was processed. Taken together, these observations support our previously proposed model but also raise new questions about the replication control mechanism.
Source: Plasmid - Category: Biotechnology Source Type: research