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Genome-wide survey of mRNA half-lives in Bacillus subtilis identifies extremely stable mRNAs

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Abstract

We have used DNA microarrays to survey rates of mRNA decay on a genomic scale in early stationary-phase cultures of Bacillus subtilis. The decay rates for mRNAs corresponding to about 1500 genes could be estimated. About 80% of these mRNAs had a half-life of less than 7 min. More than 30 mRNAs, including both mono- and polycistronic transcripts, were found to be extremely stable, i.e. to have a half-life of ≥15 min. Only two such transcripts were known previously in B. subtilis. The results provide the first overview of mRNA decay rates in a gram-positive bacterium and help to identify polycistronic operons. We could find no obvious correlation between the stability of an mRNA and the function of the encoded protein. We have also not found any general features in the 5′ regions of mRNAs that distinguish stable from unstable transcripts. The identified set of extremely stable mRNAs may be useful in the construction of stable recombinant genes for the overproduction of biomolecules in Bacillus species.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from the Swedish Science Research Council (621-2001-3125) and the Crafoord Foundation (20021082). We are grateful to Åke Borg and Johan Vallon-Christersson for generously providing microarray scanning instrumentation and to Blanka Rutberg for critically reading the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cell and Organism Biology, Lund University, Sölvegatan 35, 223 62, Lund, Sweden

    G. Hambraeus, C. von Wachenfeldt & L. Hederstedt

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  1. G. Hambraeus
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  2. C. von Wachenfeldt
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  3. L. Hederstedt
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Correspondence to L. Hederstedt.

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Communicated by A. Kondorosi

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Hambraeus, G., von Wachenfeldt, C. & Hederstedt, L. Genome-wide survey of mRNA half-lives in Bacillus subtilis identifies extremely stable mRNAs. Mol Gen Genomics 269, 706–714 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00438-003-0883-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00438-003-0883-6

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