The mRNA interferases, MazF-mt3 and MazF-mt7 from Mycobacterium tuberculosis target unique pentad sequences in single-stranded RNA.

ABSTRACT: mRNA interferases are sequence-specific endoribonucleases encoded by toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems in bacterial genomes. Previously, we demonstrated that Mycobacterium tuberculosis contains at least seven genes encoding MazF homologues (MazF-mt1 to -mt7) and determined cleavage specificities for MazF-mt1 and MazF-mt6. Here we have developed a new general method for the determination of recognition sequences longer than three bases for mRNA interferases with the use of phage MS2 RNA as a substrate and CspA, an RNA chaperone, which prevents the formation of secondary structures in the RNA substrate. Using this method, we determined that MazF-mt3 cleaves RNA at UU CCU or CU CCU and MazF-mt7 at U CGCU ( indicates the cleavage site). As pentad sequence recognition is more specific than those of

SUBMITTER: Zhu L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6291307 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature