KEY TERMS:
- The degradosome is a complex of bacterial enzymes, including RNAase and helicase activities, which may be involved in degrading mRNA.
- The overall direction of degradation of bacterial mRNA is
5
–3
.
- Degradation results from the combination of exonucleolytic
cleavages followed by endonucleolytic degradation of the fragment from 3
–5
.
Bacterial mRNA is constantly degraded by a combination of endonucleases and
exonucleases (for review see Grunberg-Manago, 1999). Endonucleases cleave an RNA
at an internal site. Exonucleases are involved in trimming reactions in which
the extra residues are whittled away, base by base from the end. Bacterial
exonucleases that act on single-stranded RNA proceed along the nucleic acid
chain from the 3![]()
end.
The way the two types of enzymes work together to degrade an
mRNA is shown in Figure 5.20. Degradation of a bacterial
mRNA is initiated by an endonucleolytic attack. Several 3![]()
ends may be generated by endonucleolytic
cleavages within the mRNA. The overall direction of degradation (as measured by
loss of ability to synthesize proteins) is 5![]()
–3![]()
. This probably results from a succession
of endonucleolytic cleavages following the last ribosome. Degradation of the
released fragments of mRNA into nucleotides then proceeds by exonucleolytic
attack from the free 3![]()
–OH end toward the 5![]()
terminus (that is, in the opposite direction from
transcription). Endonucleolytic attack releases fragments that may have
different susceptibilities to exonucleases. A region of secondary structure
within the mRNA may provide an obstacle to the exonuclease, thus protecting the
regions on its 5![]()
side. The
stability of each mRNA is therefore determined by the susceptibility of its
particular sequence to both endo- and exonucleolytic cleavages.
There are ~12 ribonucleases in E. coli. Mutants in
the endoribonucleases (except ribonuclease I, which is without effect)
accumulate unprocessed precursors to rRNA and tRNA, but are viable. Mutants in
the exonucleases often have apparently unaltered phenotypes, which suggests that
one enzyme can substitute for the absence of another. Mutants lacking multiple
enzymes sometimes are inviable (for review see Caponigro and Parker, 1996).
RNAase E is the key enzyme in initiating cleavage of mRNA.
It may be the enzyme that makes the first cleavage for many mRNAs. Bacterial
mutants that have a defective ribonuclease E have increased stability (2-3 fold)
of mRNA. However, this is not its only function. RNAase E was originally
discovered as the enzyme that is responsible for processing 5![]()
rRNA from the primary transcript by a
specific endonucleolytic processing event.
The process of degradation may be catalyzed by a multienzyme
complex (sometimes called the degradosome) that
includes ribonuclease E, PNPase, and a helicase (Miczak et al., 1996). RNAase E plays dual roles. Its
N-terminal domain provides an endonuclease activity. The C-terminal domain
provides a scaffold that holds together the other components (Vanzo et al., 1998). The helicase unwinds the
substrate RNA to make it available to PNPase. According to this model, RNAase E
makes the initial cut and then passes the fragments to the other components of
the complex for processing.
Polyadenylation may play a role in initiating degradation of
some mRNAs in bacteria. Poly(A) polymerase is associated with ribosomes in
E. coli, and short (10-40 nucleotide) stretches of poly(A) are added to
at least some mRNAs. Triple mutations that remove poly(A) polymerase,
ribonuclease E, and polynucleotide phosphorylase (PNPase is a 3![]()
–5![]()
exonuclease) have a strong effect
on stability. (Mutations in individual genes or pairs of genes have only a weak
effect.) Poly(A) polymerase may create a poly(A) tail that acts as a binding
site for the nucleases. The role of poly(A) in bacteria would therefore be
different from that in eukaryotic cells (O'Hara et al., 1995).