Sequence and transcriptional analysis of the Escherichia coli rnt gene encoding RNase T

The Escherichia coli rnt gene encoding the enzyme RNase T, which is responsible for the end-turnover of tRNA, was cloned on a 1.5-kilobase DNA fragment. When placed in pUC18 and pUC19 vectors this fragment led to approximately a 40-fold overexpression of RNase T activity. The cloned fragment was sequenced and was found to contain an open reading frame sufficient to encode a protein of 215 amino acids with a molecular weight of 23,521, which is close to the subunit molecular weight of RNase T; the fragment also contains a second incomplete open reading frame with some sequence similarity to RNA helicases. The derived sequence of RNase T showed no similarity to any of the other E. coli exoribonucleases sequenced to date. Primer extension analysis and deletion of part of the upstream region were used to identify the transcription start point and the promoter of the rnt gene. Northern and primer extension analysis revealed that the rnt message also included the second open reading frame, suggesting that rnt is part of an operon.