Extremophiles have long been interesting to investigators and the unique mechanisms behind halophile and thermophile survival have since been uncovered. In highly radiation-resistant species, it has become clear that DNA repair proteins and oxidative stress proteins are up-regulated. However, the pathway that causes this change in expression in response to radiation has not yet been well-characterized. Deinococcus radiodurans has been shown to withstand up to 250 times higher radiation dosage than Escherichia coli, and as such, it has become a great model for studies of radiation resistance. In bacteria, non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) have proven to be important in stress-related responses. This study uses 5' rapid amplification of cDNA ends (5'RACE) to determine the sequence of 15 ncRNAs that were shown to have differential expression under varying radiation dosages in D. radiodurans. Computational secondary structure prediction and target prediction algorithms were used to validate the radiation-induced response mechanism of the ncRNA. The results of this study identify conserved ncRNAs that bestow radiation-resistance, and also elucidate novel regulatory mechanisms in extremophiles such as D.radiodurans.

Identification and functional determination of regulatory RNAs in radiation-resistance

247th National Meeting (2014)

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