User:Michelle Meyer BC/L10

The L10(L12)4-interacting autogenous regulatory RNA is responsible for negatively regulating rplJ (L10) and rplL (L12) in response to the L10(L12)4 complex. The experimentally validated minimal binding site includes a kink-turn motif followed by a bulged cytosine in the non-canonical stem, and is a direct mimic of the L10 rRNA binding site. The stem is topped by a hairpin with an internal loop containing two unpaired adenosines that are present in all sequences. The unpaired adenosines as well as the kink-turn motif have both been identified as being critical for L10(L12)4 binding. This RNA has a widespread evolutionary distribution, described in both Proteobacteria and Firmicutes, and has been recently expanded to include most other eubacterial phyla. Directly following the RNA there appears to be a rho-independent intrinsic terminator, which is only present in Firmicutes, Cyanobacteria, and Fusobacteria, suggesting the presence of different regulatory mechanisms in different bacterial species. In E. coli, this RNA appears to act post-transcriptionally, but before translation.