Small regulatory RNAs in Acinetobacter baumannii: current status and future directions

Bacteria adapt to changing environments to ensure survival. Responding to new environmental conditions and internal states through regulation of gene expression is a fundamental biological process. One group of regulators of gene expression is regulatory RNAs. Among their many functions, there is a group of relatively short RNA molecules ('small RNAs', sRNAs) which typically modulate gene expression by base-pairing to a cognate target RNA or by directly binding to a protein, leading to a regulatory output. Although regulatory sRNAs have been studied in great detail in many medically important bacteria, we know much less about them in the World Health Organization priority pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii. In this review, I outline our current understanding and highlight recent progress of sRNA-mediated gene regulation in A. baumannii and provide an outlook for future areas to study.