In vivo and in vitro processing of the Bacillus subtilis transcript coding for glutamyl-tRNA synthetase, serine acetyltransferase, and cysteinyl-tRNA synthetase

Abstract

In Bacillus subtilis, the adjacent genes gltX, cysE, and cysS encoding respectively glutamyl-tRNA synthetase, serine acetyl-transferase, and cysteinyl-tRNA synthetase, are transcribed as an operon but a gltX probe reveals only the presence of a monocistronic gltX mRNA (Gagnon et al., 1994, J Biol Chem 269:7473–7482). The transcript of the gltX-cysE intergenic region contains putative alternative secondary structures forming a ρ-independent terminator or an antiterminator, and a conserved sequence (T-box) found in the leader of most aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase and many amino acid biosynthesis genes in B. subtilis and in other Gram-positive eubacteria. The transcription of these genes is initiated 45 nt upstream from the first codon of gltX and is under the control of a σ^A-type promoter. Analysis of the in vivo transcript of this operon revealed a cleavage site immediately downstream from the ρ-independent terminator structure. In vitro transcription analysis, using RNA polymerases from Escherichia coli, B. subtilis, and that encoded by the T7 phage, in the presence of various RNase inhibitors, shows the same cleavage. This processing generates mRNAs whose 5′-end half-lives differ by a factor of 2 in rich medium, and leaves putative secondary structures at the 3′ end of the gltX transcript and at the 5′ end of the cysE/S mRNA, which may be involved in the stabilization of these mRNAs. By its mechanism and its position, this cleavage differs from that of the other known transcripts encoding aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases in B. subtilis.