The ssnA RNA motif is a conserved RNA structure that was discovered by bioinformatics.[1] ssnA motif RNAs are found in Clostridiales.

ssnA
Consensus secondary structure and sequence conservation of ssnA RNA
Identifiers
SymbolssnA
RfamRF03031
Other data
RNA typeCis-reg
SOSO:0005836
PDB structuresPDBe

ssnA motif RNAs likely function as cis-regulatory elements, in view of their positions upstream of protein-coding genes. Specifically, they occur upstream of genes that are homologous to the ssnA gene of Escherichia coli, even though ssnA RNAs are not themselves in E. coli, or related organisms. This gene's biological function is not yet known (as of 2018), but it is predicted as a type of metallo-dependent hydrolase. ssnA RNAs are closely (within 20–30 base pairs) by Rho-independent transcription terminators.

References edit

  1. ^ Weinberg Z, Lünse CE, Corbino KA, Ames TD, Nelson JW, Roth A, Perkins KR, Sherlock ME, Breaker RR (October 2017). "Detection of 224 candidate structured RNAs by comparative analysis of specific subsets of intergenic regions". Nucleic Acids Res. 45 (18): 10811–10823. doi:10.1093/nar/gkx699. PMC 5737381. PMID 28977401.