Thinking beside the box: Should we care about the non-coding strand of the 16S rRNA gene?

The 16S rRNA gene (16S rDNA) codes for RNA that plays a fundamental role during translation in the ribosome and is used extensively as a marker gene to establish relationships among bacteria. However, the complementary non-coding 16S rDNA (nc16S rDNA) has been ignored. An idea emerged in the course of analyzing bacterial 16S rDNA sequences in search for nucleotide composition and substitution patterns: Does the nc16S rDNA code? If so, what does it code for? More importantly: Does 16S rDNA evolution reflect its own evolution or the evolution of its counterpart nc16S rDNA? The objective of this minireview is to discuss these thoughts. nc strands often encode small RNAs (sRNAs), ancient components of gene regulation. nc16S rDNA sequences from different bacterial groups were used to search for possible matches in the Bacterial Small Regulatory RNA Database. Intriguingly, the sequence of one published sRNA obtained from Legionella pneumophila (GenBank: AE0173541) showed high non-random similarity with nc16S rDNA corresponding in part to the V5 region especially from Legionella and relatives. While the target(s) of this sRNA is unclear at the moment, its mere existence might open up a new chapter in the use of the 16S rDNA to study relationships among bacteria.