Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology (Sep 2014)

Current status of antisense RNA-mediated gene regulation in Listeria monocytogenes

  • Tilman eSchultze,
  • Benjamin eIzar,
  • Xiaoxing eQing,
  • Gopala Krishna Mannala,
  • Torsten eHain

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2014.00135
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 4

Abstract

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Listeria monocytogenes is a Gram-positive human-pathogen bacterium that served as an experimental model for investigating fundamental processes of adaptive immunity and virulence. Recent novel technologies allowed the identification of several hundred non-coding, RNAs (ncRNAs) in the Listeria genome and provided insight into an unexpected complex transcriptional machinery. In this review, we discuss ncRNAs that are encoded on the opposite strand of the target gene and are therefore termed antisense RNAs (asRNAs). We highlight mechanistic and functional concepts of asRNAs in L. monocytogenes and put these in context of asRNAs in other bacteria. Understanding asRNAs will further broaden our understanding of RNA-mediated gene regulation and may provide targets for diagnostic and antimicrobial development.

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