Study of the functionality of the Helicobacter pylori trans-translation components SmpB and SsrA in an heterologous system

摘要

BackgroundTrans-translation is a ubiquitous bacterial quality control-mechanism for both transcription and translation. With its two major partners, SsrA a small stable RNA and the SmpB protein, it promotes the release of ribosomes stalled on defective mRNAs and directs the corresponding truncated proteins to degradation pathways. We have recently shown that trans-translation is an essential function in the gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori. Our results suggested that some properties of the H. pylori trans-translation machinery distinguishes it from the well known system in E. coli. Therefore, we decided to test the functionality of the SmpB and SsrA molecules of H. pylori in the E. coli heterologous system using two established phenotypic tests.