Selective RNA processing and stabilization (SRPS) facilitates the differential expression of multiple genes in polycistronic operons. However, how the coordinated actions of SRPS-related enzymes affect stoichiometric regulation remains unclear. In the present study, the first genome-wide targetome analysis is reported of these enzymes in Escherichia coli, at a single-nucleotide resolution. A strictly linear relationship is observed between the RNA pyrophosphohydrolase processing ratio and scores assigned to the first three nucleotides of the primary transcript. Stem-loops associated with PNPase targetomes exhibit a folding free energy that is negatively correlated with the termination ratio of PNPase at the 3' end. More than one-tenth of the RNase E processing sites in the 5'-untranslated regions（UTR） form different stem-loops that affect ribosome-binding and translation efficiency. The effectiveness of the SRPS elements is validated using a dual-fluorescence reporter system. The findings highlight a multi-layer and quantitative regulatory method for optimizing the stoichiometric expression of genes in bacteria and promoting the application of SRPS in synthetic biology.
Keywords: selective RNA processing and stabilization; simultaneous 5′ and 3′ end sequencing; stem-loop structure; stoichiometric regulation; targetome.
© 2023 The Authors. Advanced Science published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.