Regulation of Ribonuclease J Expression in Corynebacterium glutamicum

RNase J exerts both 5'-3' exoribonuclease and endoribonuclease activities and plays a major role in ribonucleotide metabolism in various bacteria; however, its gene regulation is not well understood. In this study, we investigated the regulation of rnj expression in Corynebacterium glutamicum. rnj mRNA expression was increased in a strain with an rnj mutation. Deletion of the genes encoding RNase E/G also resulted in increased rnj mRNA levels, although the effect was smaller than that of the rnj mutation. rnj mRNA was more stable in the rnj mutant strain than in wild-type cells. These results indicate that RNase J regulates its own gene by degrading its mRNA. The growth of rnj and pnp mutant cells was impaired at cold temperatures. The expression of rnj mRNA was transiently induced by cold shock; however, this induction was not observed in the rnj mutant strain, suggesting that autoregulation by self-degradation is responsible for inducing of rnj expression under cold-shock conditions. IMPORTANCE Corynebacterium glutamicum harbors one RNase E/G-type enzyme and one RNase J-type enzyme which are major ribonucleases in various bacteria. However, little is known about these gene regulations. Here, we show that RNase J autoregulates its own gene expression and RNase E/G is also involved in the rnj mRNA degradation. Furthermore, we show that transient induction of the rnj mRNA in the cold-shock condition is dependent on RNase J autoregulation. This study sheds light on the regulatory mechanism of RNase J in C. glutamicum.