Bartonella bacilliformis , the etiological agent of Carrión’s disease, is a Gram-negative, facultative intracellular alphaproteobacterium. Carrión’s disease is an emerging but neglected tropical illness endemic to Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador. B. bacilliformis is spread between humans through the bite of female phlebotomine sand flies. As a result, the pathogen encounters significant and repeated environmental shifts during its life cycle, including changes in pH and temperature. In most bacteria, small non-coding RNAs (sRNAs) serve as effectors that may post-transcriptionally regulate the stress response to such changes. However, sRNAs have not been characterized in B. bacilliformis , to date. We therefore performed total RNA-sequencing analyses on B. bacilliformis grown in vitro then shifted to one of ten distinct conditions that simulate various environments encountered by the pathogen during its life cycle. From this, we identified 160 sRNAs significantly expressed under at least one of the conditions tested. sRNAs included the highly-conserved tmRNA, 6S RNA, RNase P RNA component, SRP RNA component, ffH leader RNA, and the alphaproteobacterial sRNAs αr45 and speF leader RNA. In addition, 153 other potential sRNAs of unknown function were discovered. Northern blot analysis was used to confirm the expression of eight novel sRNAs. We also characterized a B artonella b acilliformis g rou p I intron (BbgpI) that disrupts an un-annotated tRNA CCU Arg gene and determined that the intron splices in vivo and self-splices in vitro. Furthermore, we demonstrated the molecular targeting of B artonella b acilliformis s mall R NA 9 (BbsR9) to transcripts of the ftsH , nuoF , and gcvT genes, in vitro .

中文翻译：

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细菌Bartonella bacilliformis在多种条件下表达的新型小RNA揭示了在沙蝇载体和人类宿主中持续存在的潜在机制

克氏杆菌病的病原体Bartonella bacilliformis是革兰氏阴性兼性细胞内α变形杆菌。Carrión病是秘鲁，哥伦比亚和厄瓜多尔特有的一种新兴但被忽视的热带病。芽孢杆菌通过雌性le螨的蝇蝇在人与人之间传播。结果，病原体在其生命周期中经历了重大且反复的环境变化，包括pH和温度的变化。在大多数细菌中，小的非编码RNA（sRNA）充当效应器，可以在转录后调节对此类变化的应激反应。然而，迄今为止，尚未在芽孢杆菌中鉴定出sRNA。因此，我们对B进行了总RNA测序分析。然后，在体外生长的细菌会转移到模拟病原体生命周期遇到的各种环境的十种不同条件之一。由此，我们鉴定了在至少一种测试条件下显着表达的160个sRNA。sRNA包括高度保守的tmRNA，6S RNA，RNase P RNA组分，SRP RNA组分，ffH前导RNA和α变形细菌sRNAαr45和speF前导RNA。此外，还发现了其他153个功能未知的潜在sRNA。使用RNA印迹分析来证实八种新型sRNA的表达。我们还鉴定了能破坏无注释的tRNA CCU Arg基因的油状杆菌青枯病Ⅰ内含子（BbgpI），并确定了该内含子在体内是剪接的，在体外是自身剪接的。此外，