Retarded RNA turnover in Escherichia coli: a means of maintaining gene expression during anaerobiosis

Abstract

In this study, we extend earlier observations on the influence of growth rate on mRNA stability and rRNA processing in Escherichia coli during continuous culture, to the effect of anaerobiosis. During slow anaerobic growth (generation time 700 min) both ompA and bla mRNA had a prolonged half-life compared to that during slow aerobic growth and the processing of 9S RNA was even more profoundly retarded, which indicated a general slowing of mRNA turnover. The latter was confirmed by a nearly fourfold increase in the functional half-life of bulk mRNA. In spite of this difference in stability, steady state levels of RNA, as judged by those of the ompA and 9S transcripts, were the same in aerobic and anaerobic cells at a given growth rate. Furthermore, we found that RNA synthesis during anaerobiosis was a fraction of that observed during slow aerobic growth and it is proposed that this offsets the general increase in mRNA stability. Our data therefore suggest that a constant level of RNA is maintained by matching the rate of decay to the level of RNA synthesis.