Consequences of losing ribonuclease III on the Escherichia coli cell

An isogenic pair of Escherichia coli strains, one carrying an rnc+ and the other an rnc- allele (a mutation which reduces the level of ribonuclease III), was compared. The rnc- strain fails to grow at very elevated temperatures (for E. coli) while the rnc+ strain does grow exponentially. Assaying the residual RNase III like activity in extracts of the rnc- strain at different pHs and at different temperatures suggested that this residual RNase III like activity is not due to RNase III. This raised the possibility that the rnc- strain is devoid of any RNase III activity in the cell. Comparing the decay of newly synthesized RNA and functional decay of beta-galactosidase mRNA in such strains revealed that in both strains these parameters proceed in similar rates, which suggests that RNase III is not involved in the metabolism of mRNA. During carbon starvation preexisting total RNA, as well as 23S and 16S rRNA, decay faster in the rnc- strain, thus eliminating the possibility that RNase III is the endoribonuclease which initiates the decay of rRNA during starvation (Kaplan and Apirion, 1975a).