[Research Article] Term-seq reveals abundant ribo-regulation of antibiotics resistance in bacteria

Riboswitches and attenuators are cis-regulatory RNA elements, most of which control bacterial gene expression via metabolite-mediated, premature transcription termination. We developed an unbiased experimental approach for genome-wide discovery of such ribo-regulators in bacteria. We also devised an experimental platform that quantitatively measures the in vivo activity of all such regulators in parallel and enables rapid screening for ribo-regulators that respond to metabolites of choice. Using this approach, we detected numerous antibiotic-responsive ribo-regulators that control antibiotic resistance genes in pathogens and in the human microbiome. Studying one such regulator in Listeria monocytogenes revealed an attenuation mechanism mediated by antibiotic-stalled ribosomes. Our results expose broad roles for conditional termination in regulating antibiotic resistance and provide a tool for discovering riboswitches and attenuators that respond to previously unknown ligands.
Authors: Daniel Dar, Maya Shamir, J. R. Mellin, Mikael Koutero, Noam Stern-Ginossar, Pascale Cossart, Rotem Sorek

Source: ScienceNOW - April 7, 2016 Category: Science Authors: Daniel Dar Source Type: news