ManA RNA motif

manA RNA
Consensus secondary structure of manA RNAs
Identifiers
Symbol	manA RNA
Rfam	RF01745
Other data
RNA type	Cis-regulatory element
Domain(s)	Photobacterium

The manA RNA motif (also called manA) refers to a conserved RNA structure that was identified by bioinformatics.^[1][2] Instances of the manA RNA motif were detected in bacteria in the genus Photobacterium and phages that infect certain kinds of cyanobacteria. However, most predicted manA RNA sequences are derived from DNA collected from uncultivated marine bacteria. Almost all manA RNAs are positioned such that they might be in the 5' untranslated regions of protein-coding genes, and therefore it was hypothesized that manA RNAs function as cis-regulatory elements. Given the relative complexity of their secondary structure, and their hypothesized cis-regulatory role, they might be riboswitches.

The genes thought to be regulated by manA RNAs are most typically those involved in the metabolism of the sugars fructose and mannose, synthesis of nucleotides, bacterial photosynthesis and a class of protein chaperones known as ibpA. manA RNAs are also often adjacent to transfer RNAs, and are likely transcribed with them. Although these genes are not thought of as typical of phages, it has previously been observed that phages infecting cyanobacteria commonly incorporate such genes.^[3][4][5]

References

1. ^ Weinberg Z, Perreault J, Meyer MM, Breaker RR (December 2009). "Exceptional structured noncoding RNAs revealed by bacterial metagenome analysis". Nature 462 (7273): 656–9. doi:10.1038/nature08586. PMID 19956260. 
2. ^ Weinberg Z, Wang JX, Bogue J, et al. (March 2010). "Comparative genomics reveals 104 candidate structured RNAs from bacteria, archaea and their metagenomes". Genome Biol 11 (3): R31. doi:10.1186/gb-2010-11-3-r31. PMC 2864571. PMID 20230605. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=2864571. 
3. ^ Sullivan MB, Coleman ML, Weigele P, Rohwer F, Chisholm SW (May 2005). "Three Prochlorococcus cyanophage genomes: signature features and ecological interpretations". PLoS Biol. 3 (5): e144. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0030144. PMC 1079782. PMID 15828858. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1079782. 
4. ^ Rohwer F, Thurber RV (May 2009). "Viruses manipulate the marine environment". Nature 459 (7244): 207–12. doi:10.1038/nature08060. PMID 19444207. 
5. ^ Lindell D, Jaffe JD, Coleman ML, et al. (September 2007). "Genome-wide expression dynamics of a marine virus and host reveal features of co-evolution". Nature 449 (7158): 83–6. doi:10.1038/nature06130. PMID 17805294. 

External links

• Rfam page for manA RNA