Disease relevance of sra

• We also detected an sra homolog in Rhizobium meliloti which, when cloned and transferred to B. japonicum mutant 259, fully restored symbiotic effectiveness in that strain [1].
• Here we report the first exception to this rule: the sra gene; it was discovered during the genetic analysis of a Bradyrhizobium japonicum Tn5 mutant (strain 259) which had a severe deficiency in colonizing soybean nodules [1].

High impact information on sra

• In addition, global regulators, such as factor inversion stimulation (FIS), integration host factor (IHF), cyclic AMP, and ppGpp, were found to play a role either directly or indirectly in the transcription of sra in the stationary phase [2].
• Results obtained with critical point mutations in the sra gene proved that the transcript was not translated into protein; rather, it appeared to function as an RNA molecule with a certain stem-and-loop secondary structure [1].
• We propose several alternative functions for the sra gene product, of which that as a regulatory RNA for gene expression may be the most probable one [1].

References