The gamma-150 RNA motif is a conserved

RNA Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule that is essential for most biological functions, either by performing the function itself (non-coding RNA) or by forming a template for the production of proteins (messenger RNA). RNA and deoxyrib ...

structure that is found in

bacteria Bacteria (; : bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biology), biological cell. They constitute a large domain (biology), domain of Prokaryote, prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micr ...

within the order

Pseudomonadales The Pseudomonadales are an order of Pseudomonadota. A few members are pathogens, such as species of ''Pseudomonas'', ''Moraxella'', and '' Acinetobacter'', which may cause disease in humans, animals and plants. ''Pseudomonas'' The bacterial genu ...

. Because gamma-150 RNAs are not consistently in

5' UTR The 5′ untranslated region (also known as 5′ UTR, leader sequence, transcript leader, or leader RNA) is the region of a messenger RNA (mRNA) that is directly Upstream and downstream (DNA), upstream from the initiation codon. This region is im ...

s, the gamma-150 motif is presumed to correspond to a

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 ...

. Experiments conducted on RNA transcripts in ''

Pseudomonas syringae ''Pseudomonas syringae'' is a rod-shaped, Gram-negative bacterium with polar flagella. As a plant pathology, plant pathogen, it can infect a wide range of species, and exists as over 50 different pathovars, all of which are available to research ...

'' DC3000 revealed that two gamma-150 RNAs in that organism are transcribed as separate RNA molecules. The transcript length is roughly 380

nucleotide Nucleotides are Organic compound, organic molecules composed of a nitrogenous base, a pentose sugar and a phosphate. They serve as monomeric units of the nucleic acid polymers – deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), both o ...

s in size, which is almost twice as large as the gamma-150 motif itself. It is likely that they are transcribed by

RpoN The gene ''rpoN'' (RNA polymerase, nitrogen-limitation N) encodes the sigma factor ''sigma-54'' (σ54, sigma N, or RpoN), a protein in ''Escherichia coli ''Escherichia coli'' ( )Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ...

, a protein that is also referred to as sigma 54. Structurally, the gamma-150 motif consists of four independent

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. The first stem-loop (the stem-loop closest to the 5' end of the RNA) has significant covariation in support of its identity as an RNA (see secondary structure prediction). The second and fourth have more modest evidence, while the third stem-loop might be poorly conserved, or not genuine. Several regions of high conservation of

identity are present throughout the RNA motif, and many contain short runs of

adenosine Adenosine (symbol A) is an organic compound that occurs widely in nature in the form of diverse derivatives. The molecule consists of an adenine attached to a ribose via a β-N9- glycosidic bond. Adenosine is one of the four nucleoside build ...

References

Non-coding RNA {{molecular-cell-biology-stub