RNA binding of Hfq monomers promotes RelA-mediated hexamerization in a limiting Hfq environment

Pallabi Basu, Maya Elgrably-Weiss, Fouad Hassouna, Manoj Kumar, Reuven Wiener and Shoshy Altuvia ()
Additional contact information
Pallabi Basu: The Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School
Maya Elgrably-Weiss: The Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School
Fouad Hassouna: The Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School
Manoj Kumar: The Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School
Reuven Wiener: The Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School
Shoshy Altuvia: The Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: Abstract The RNA chaperone Hfq, acting as a hexamer, is a known mediator of post-transcriptional regulation, expediting basepairing between small RNAs (sRNAs) and their target mRNAs. However, the intricate details associated with Hfq-RNA biogenesis are still unclear. Previously, we reported that the stringent response regulator, RelA, is a functional partner of Hfq that facilitates Hfq-mediated sRNA–mRNA regulation in vivo and induces Hfq hexamerization in vitro. Here we show that RelA-mediated Hfq hexamerization requires an initial binding of RNA, preferably sRNA to Hfq monomers. By interacting with a Shine–Dalgarno-like sequence (GGAG) in the sRNA, RelA stabilizes the initially unstable complex of RNA bound-Hfq monomer, enabling the attachment of more Hfq subunits to form a functional hexamer. Overall, our study showing that RNA binding to Hfq monomers is at the heart of RelA-mediated Hfq hexamerization, challenges the previous concept that only Hfq hexamers can bind RNA.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22553-x Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-22553-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-22553-x

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().