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The end defines the means in bacterial mRNA decay

Nature Chemical Biology volume 3, pages 535–536 (2007)Cite this article

Bacterial mRNAs begin with a triphosphate on the first transcribed nucleotide, but RNase E, the endonuclease long thought to initiate mRNA decay in Escherichia coli, only works well on RNA with a 5′-monophosphate. Conversion of the 5′-triphosphate to a monophosphate now appears to be the first committed step in mRNA decay in E. coli.

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Figure 1: E. coli mRNA decay is activated by the conversion of the mRNA 5′ end from triphosphate to monophosphate.

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  1. Daniel R. Schoenberg is in the Department of Molecular & Cellular Biochemistry, The Ohio State University, 1645 Neil Ave., Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA. schoenberg.3@osu.edu,

    Daniel R Schoenberg

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  1. Daniel R Schoenberg
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Schoenberg, D. The end defines the means in bacterial mRNA decay. Nat Chem Biol 3, 535–536 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio0907-535

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