The ''potC'' RNA motif is a conserved

RNA Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule essential in various biological roles in coding, decoding, regulation and expression of genes. RNA and deoxyribonucleic acid ( DNA) are nucleic acids. Along with lipids, proteins, and carbohydra ...

structure discovered using

bioinformatics Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field that develops methods and software tools for understanding biological data, in particular when the data sets are large and complex. As an interdisciplinary field of science, bioinformatics combin ...

. The RNA is detected only in

genome In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding ...

sequences derived from DNA that was extracted from uncultivated

marine bacteria Marine prokaryotes are marine bacteria and marine archaea. They are defined by their habitat as prokaryotes that live in marine environments, that is, in the saltwater of seas or oceans or the brackish water of coastal estuaries. All cellula ...

. Thus, this RNA is present in environmental samples, but not yet found in any cultivated organism. ''potC'' RNAs are located in the presumed

5' untranslated region 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 from the initiation codon. This region is important for the regulation of t ...

s of

gene In biology, the word gene (from , ; "... Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a b ...

s predicted to encode either

membrane transport protein A membrane transport protein (or simply transporter) is a membrane protein involved in the movement of ions, small molecules, and macromolecules, such as another protein, across a biological membrane. Transport proteins are integral membrane prote ...

s or

peroxiredoxin Peroxiredoxins (Prxs, ; HGNC root symbol ''PRDX'') are a ubiquitous family of antioxidant enzymes that also control cytokine-induced peroxide levels and thereby mediate signal transduction in mammalian cells. The family members in humans are PRDX ...

s. Therefore, it was hypothesized that ''potC'' RNAs are

cis-regulatory element ''Cis''-regulatory elements (CREs) or ''Cis''-regulatory modules (CRMs) are regions of non-coding DNA which regulate the transcription of neighboring genes. CREs are vital components of genetic regulatory networks, which in turn control morphoge ...

s, but their detailed function is unknown. A number of other RNAs were identified in the same study, including: * Lacto-usp RNA motif * mraW RNA motif * Ocean-V RNA motif * psaA RNA motif * Pseudomon-Rho RNA motif * rne-II RNA motif * STAXI RNA motif * TwoAYGGAY RNA motif * Whalefall-1 RNA motif * wcaG RNA motif * ykkC-yxkD leader

References

External links

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