Posttranscriptional regulation of ribosomal protein S20 and stability of the S20 mRNA species.

I have tested whether selective degradation of mRNA for ribosomal protein S20 of Escherichia coli occurs under conditions for which the expression of S20 is regulated posttranscriptionally. Blot hybridization of total RNA extracted from cultures at different times after addition of rifampin has permitted the estimation of relative levels of the two S20 mRNA species and their half-lives. In a strain harboring a plasmid containing the complete gene for S20, including the transcriptional terminator, moderate posttranscriptional repression of S20 synthesis is accompanied by a substantial increase in the half-lives of both S20 mRNAs relative to those in the haploid parental strain. In an otherwise identical strain in which the transcriptional terminator is deleted from the plasmid-borne S20 genes, the half-life of total S20 mRNA declines more than twofold relative to that in the haploid parent. Thus accelerated decay of the mRNAs for ribosomal protein S20 appears to be an artifact of deletion of the transcriptional terminator, rather than a physiologically significant consequence of translational repression.