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Updated: Mar 14, 2026

Phage-mediated Delivery of Targeted sRNA Constructs to Knock Down Gene Expression in E. coli
Published on: March 20, 2016
Avoidance of stochastic RNA interactions can be harnessed to control protein expression levels in bacteria and
Sinan Uğur Umu1,2, Anthony M Poole1,2, Renwick Cj Dobson1,2,3
1School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Abstract:
A critical assumption of gene expression analysis is that mRNA abundances broadly correlate with protein abundance, but these two are often imperfectly correlated. Some of the discrepancy can be accounted for by two important mRNA features: codon usage and mRNA secondary structure. We present a new global factor, called mRNA:ncRNA avoidance, and provide evidence that avoidance increases translational efficiency. We also demonstrate a strong selection for the avoidance of stochastic mRNA:ncRNA interactions across prokaryotes, and that these have a greater impact on protein abundance than mRNA structure or codon usage. By generating synonymously variant green fluorescent protein (GFP) mRNAs with different potential for mRNA:ncRNA interactions, we demonstrate that GFP levels correlate well with interaction avoidance. Therefore, taking stochastic mRNA:ncRNA interactions into account enables precise modulation of protein abundance.
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