Studies of DNA bound RNA molecules isolated from nucleoids of Escherichia coli

Methods are developed for studying RNA molecules bound directly to DNA in bacterial nucleoids. It is found that among the 1000-3000 nascent RNA chains that normally are attached to the DNA via their associated RNA polymerase molecules, 74 +/- 14 chains per nucleoid can be bound differently. These chains unlike the other nascent RNAs remained bound to the DNA after the chromosome was deproteinized and sheared. Sensitive assays using radioactive labels detected no RNA polymerase involved in the RNA-DNA linkage. The linkage was stable at low temperatures, but the RNA separated from the DNA at high temperature. The bound RNA molecules were heterodisperse (weight average length 1200 bases). Pulse-chase experiments and studies of the fate of these RNA molecules in rifampicin treated cells demonstrated that they are nascent RNAs, degraded or released from the DNA in vivo with kinetics similar to that of the total nascent RNA. Hybridization analyses showed that the chains are composed at least in part of nascent rRNA and known mRNA molecules. Some, but not more than 5% of the bound chains, contained sequences of about 300 nucleotides in length, bound to the DNA in an RNase resistant form.