The gamma-150 RNA motif is a conserved

RNA Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule essential in various biological roles in coding, decoding, regulation and expression of genes. RNA and deoxyribonucleic acid ( DNA) are nucleic acids. Along with lipids, proteins, and carbohydra ...

structure that is found in

bacteria Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among ...

within the order

Pseudomonadales The Pseudomonadales are an order of Pseudomonadota. A few members are pathogens, such as species of ''Pseudomonas'', ''Moraxella'', and ''Acinetobacter'', which may cause disease in humans, animals and plants. ''Pseudomonas'' The bacterial genu ...

. Because gamma-150 RNAs are not consistently in

5' UTR The 5′ untranslated region (also known as 5′ UTR, leader sequence, transcript leader, or leader RNA) is the region of a messenger RNA (mRNA) that is directly upstream from the initiation codon. This region is important for the regulation of ...

s, the gamma-150 motif is presumed to correspond to a

non-coding RNA A non-coding RNA (ncRNA) is a functional RNA molecule that is not translated into a protein. The DNA sequence from which a functional non-coding RNA is transcribed is often called an RNA gene. Abundant and functionally important types of non-c ...

. Experiments conducted on RNA transcripts in ''

Pseudomonas syringae ''Pseudomonas syringae'' is a rod-shaped, Gram-negative bacterium with polar flagella. As a plant pathogen, it can infect a wide range of species, and exists as over 50 different pathovars, all of which are available to researchers from internat ...

'' DC3000 revealed that two gamma-150 RNAs in that organism are transcribed as separate RNA molecules. The transcript length is roughly 380

nucleotide Nucleotides are organic molecules consisting of a nucleoside and a phosphate. They serve as monomeric units of the nucleic acid polymers – deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), both of which are essential biomolecules wi ...

s in size, which is almost twice as large as the gamma-150 motif itself. It is likely that they are transcribed by

RpoN The gene ''rpoN'' (RNA polymerase, nitrogen-limitation N) encodes the sigma factor ''sigma-54'' (σ54, sigma N, or RpoN), a protein in ''Escherichia coli ''Escherichia coli'' (),Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ...

, a protein that is also referred to as sigma 54. Structurally, the gamma-150 motif consists of four independent

stem-loop Stem-loop intramolecular base pairing is a pattern that can occur in single-stranded RNA. The structure is also known as a hairpin or hairpin loop. It occurs when two regions of the same strand, usually complementary in nucleotide sequence when ...

s. The first stem-loop (the stem-loop closest to the 5' end of the RNA) has significant covariation in support of its identity as an RNA (see secondary structure prediction). The second and fourth have more modest evidence, while the third stem-loop might be poorly conserved, or not genuine. Several regions of high conservation of

identity are present throughout the RNA motif, and many contain short runs of

adenosine Adenosine ( symbol A) is an organic compound that occurs widely in nature in the form of diverse derivatives. The molecule consists of an adenine attached to a ribose via a β-N9-glycosidic bond. Adenosine is one of the four nucleoside building ...

References

Non-coding RNA {{molecular-cell-biology-stub