The sRNA NsiR4 is involved in nitrogen assimilation control in cyanobacteria by targeting glutamine synthetase inactivating factor IF7.

ABSTRACT: Glutamine synthetase (GS), a key enzyme in biological nitrogen assimilation, is regulated in multiple ways in response to varying nitrogen sources and levels. Here we show a small regulatory RNA, NsiR4 (nitrogen stress-induced RNA 4), which plays an important role in the regulation of GS in cyanobacteria. NsiR4 expression in the unicellular Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 and in the filamentous, nitrogen-fixing Anabaena sp. PCC 7120 is stimulated through nitrogen limitation via NtcA, the global transcriptional regulator of genes involved in nitrogen metabolism. NsiR4 is widely conserved throughout the cyanobacterial phylum, suggesting a conserved function. In silico target prediction, transcriptome profiling on pulse overexpression, and site-directed mutagenesis experiments using a heterologous

SUBMITTER: Klahn S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4653137 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature