Noncontiguous operon atlas for the

Bacteria synchronize the expression of genes with related functions by organizing genes into operons so that they are cotranscribed together in a single polycistronic messenger RNA. However, some cellular processes may benefit if the simultaneous production of the operon proteins coincides with the inhibition of the expression of an antagonist gene. To coordinate such situations, bacteria have evolved noncontiguous operons (NcOs), a subtype of operons that contain one or more genes that are transcribed in the opposite direction to the other operon genes. This structure results in overlapping transcripts whose expression is mutually repressed. The presence of NcOs cannot be predicted computationally and their identification requires a detailed knowledge of the bacterial transcriptome. In this study, we used direct RNA sequencing methodology to determine the NcOs map in the

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© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of FEMS.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.