The bacterial SroC RNA is a

non-coding RNA A non-coding RNA (ncRNA) is a functional RNA molecule that is not 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 important types of non- ...

gene of around 160

nucleotides Nucleotides are organic molecules consisting of a nucleoside and a phosphate. They serve as monomeric units of the nucleic acid polymers – deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), both of which are essential biomolecules wi ...

in length. SroC is found in several enterobacterial species. This RNA interacts with the

Hfq protein The Hfq protein (also known as HF-I protein) encoded by the ''hfq'' gene was discovered in 1968 as an ''Escherichia coli'' host factor that was essential for replication of the bacteriophage Qβ. It is now clear that Hfq is an abundant bacterial R ...

. SroC acts as a ‘sponge,’ and base pairs with and regulates activity of the sRNA GcvB. This interaction triggers the degradation of GcvB by RNase E, alleviating the GcvB-mediated mRNA repression of other amino acid-related transport and metabolic genes.

References

External links

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