By any other name: heterologous replacement of the Escherichia coli RNase P protein subunit has in vivo fitness consequences.

ABSTRACT: Bacterial RNase P is an essential ribonucleoprotein composed of a catalytic RNA component (encoded by the rnpB gene) and an associated protein moiety (encoded by rnpA). We construct a system that allows for the deletion of the essential endogenous rnpA copy and for its simultaneous replacement by a heterologous version of the gene. Using growth rate as a proxy, we explore the effects on fitness of heterologous replacement by increasingly divergent versions of the RNase P protein. All of the heterologs tested complement the loss of the endogenous rnpA gene, suggesting that all existing bacterial versions of the rnpA sequence retain the elements required for functional interaction with the RNase P RNA. All replacements, however, exact a cost on organismal fitness, and particularly on the rat

SUBMITTER: Turrini PC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3308948 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature