Control of bacterial growth through RNA degradation

Abstract

The amount of the different RNAs present in a bacterial cell must be perfectly coordinated in terms of rate of synthesis and degradation to allow balanced growth adjusted to the environmental conditions such as temperature, osmolarity, nutrients, pH, and the like. Any given compound causing imbalanced growth, causing acceleration of the degradation of mRNAs before they can be translated, or lack of RNA processing to properly form the tRNAs or even the ribosomes, may be at least in principle be looked upon as potential antibacterial compound.