6C RNA is a class of

non-coding RNA A non-coding RNA (ncRNA) is a functional RNA molecule that is not Translation (genetics), translated into a protein. The DNA sequence from which a functional non-coding RNA is transcribed is often called an RNA gene. Abundant and functionally imp ...

present in

actinomycetes The Actinomycetales is an Scientific classification, order of Actinomycetota. A member of the order is often called an actinomycete. Actinomycetales are generally Gram-positive bacteria, gram-positive and anaerobic and have mycelia in a filamento ...

. 6C RNA was originally discovered as a conserved RNA structure having two

stem-loop Stem-loops are nucleic acid Biomolecular structure, secondary structural elements which form via intramolecular base pairing in single-stranded DNA or RNA. They are also referred to as hairpins or hairpin loops. A stem-loop occurs when two regi ...

s each containing six or more

cytosine Cytosine () (symbol C or Cyt) is one of the four nucleotide bases found in DNA and RNA, along with adenine, guanine, and thymine ( uracil in RNA). It is a pyrimidine derivative, with a heterocyclic aromatic ring and two substituents attac ...

Streptomyces coelicolor ''Streptomyces albidoflavus'' is a bacterium species from the genus of ''Streptomyces'' which has been isolated from soil from Poland. ''Streptomyces albidoflavus'' produces dibutyl phthalate and streptothricins. Small noncoding RNA Bacteri ...

'' and ''

Streptomyces avermitilis ''Streptomyces avermitilis'' is a species of bacteria in the genus ''Streptomyces''. This bacterium was discovered by Satoshi Ōmura in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. The first complete genome sequence of ''S. avermitilis'' was completed in 2003. ...

'' have predicted rho-independent transcription terminators, and

microarray A microarray is a multiplex (assay), multiplex lab-on-a-chip. Its purpose is to simultaneously detect the expression of thousands of biological interactions. It is a two-dimensional array on a Substrate (materials science), solid substrate—usu ...

and reverse-transcriptase PCR experiments indicate that the ''S. coelicolor'' version is transcribed as RNA. Transcription of the ''S. coelicolor'' RNA increases during sporulation, and three transcripts were detected that overlap the 6C motif, but have different apparent start and stop sites. Additional work established that 6C RNAs regulate a variety of

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...

-coding

gene In biology, the word gene has two meanings. The Mendelian gene is a basic unit of heredity. The molecular gene is a sequence of nucleotides in DNA that is transcribed to produce a functional RNA. There are two types of molecular genes: protei ...

s by acting as ''trans''-acting

antisense RNA Antisense RNA (asRNA), also referred to as antisense transcript, natural antisense transcript (NAT) or antisense oligonucleotide, is a single stranded RNA that is complementary to a protein coding messenger RNA (mRNA) with which it hybridizes, and ...

s. Among the genes regulated by 6C RNAs, many are involved in

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

replication and the export of proteins. Bacteria in other studied

phyla Phyla, the plural of ''phylum'', may refer to: * Phylum, a biological taxon between Kingdom and Class * by analogy, in linguistics, a large division of possibly related languages, or a major language family which is not subordinate to another Phy ...

such as

Pseudomonadota Pseudomonadota (synonym "Proteobacteria") is a major phylum of gram-negative bacteria. Currently, they are considered the predominant phylum within the domain of bacteria. They are naturally found as pathogenic and free-living (non- parasitic) ...

and

Bacillota The Bacillota (synonym Firmicutes) are a phylum of bacteria, most of which have Gram-positive cell wall structure. They have round cells, called cocci (singular coccus), or rod-like forms (bacillus). A few Bacillota, such as '' Megasphaera'', ...

use proteins such as Hfq that facilitate antisense RNA interactions, but 6C RNAs do not appear to depend on homologs of Hfq or other proteins. This lack of protein dependence might be typical of

gram-positive bacteria In bacteriology, gram-positive bacteria are bacteria that give a positive result in the Gram stain test, which is traditionally used to quickly classify bacteria into two broad categories according to their type of cell wall. The Gram stain ...

whose genomes have high

GC-content In molecular biology and genetics, GC-content (or guanine-cytosine content) is the percentage of nitrogenous bases in a DNA or RNA molecule that are either guanine (G) or cytosine (C). This measure indicates the proportion of G and C bases out of ...

, of which actinomycetes are a prominent example.

References

External links

* Non-coding RNA Cis-regulatory RNA elements {{molecular-cell-biology-stub