Insights into the small RNA interactome of Sulfolobus acidocaldarius

The regulation of cellular processes by small RNAs is in many cases mediated by their interaction with other RNA molecules, e.g. rRNA or mRNA, often facilitated by RNA-binding proteins. We identified the interaction partners of the RNA-binding proteins L7Ae and the three LSm proteins by RIP-Seq. The obtained RNA interactome datasets revealed several examples of RNA-regulated processes in Archaea. L7Ae was shown to autoregulate its translation by binding to a Kink-turn motif identified in the 5' UTR of its mRNA. The LSm1 and LSm2 proteins were found to interact with a sRNA involved in biofilm formation.