Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25915524›Full record

ArticlePloS one2015

Tracking the Elusive Function of Bacillus subtilis Hfq.

Tatiana Rochat, Olivier Delumeau, Nara Figueroa-Bossi, Philippe Noirot, Lionello Bossi, Etienne Dervyn, Philippe Bouloc

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PloS one, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
33citing papers in PubMed
4.0field-weighted citation impact, top 6% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

33 citing papers in PubMed, 53 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
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  7. Small proteins in Gram-positive bacteria.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2023
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  10. Comparative Transcriptomic Analysis ofFoods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022
    Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. An RNA-centric global view ofProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021
    Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Review
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.

Tatiana RochatInstitute for Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC), CEA, CNRS, Université Paris-Sud, F-91405, Orsay, France; INRA, UR892, Virologie et Immunologie Moléculaires, F-78352, Jouy-en-Josas, France.
Olivier DelumeauINRA, UMR1319 Micalis, F-78350, Jouy-en-Josas, France; AgroParisTech, UMR Micalis, F-78350, Jouy-en-Josas, France.
Nara Figueroa-BossiInstitute for Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC), CEA, CNRS, Université Paris-Sud, F-91190, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
Philippe NoirotINRA, UMR1319 Micalis, F-78350, Jouy-en-Josas, France; AgroParisTech, UMR Micalis, F-78350, Jouy-en-Josas, France.
Lionello BossiInstitute for Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC), CEA, CNRS, Université Paris-Sud, F-91190, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
Etienne DervynINRA, UMR1319 Micalis, F-78350, Jouy-en-Josas, France; AgroParisTech, UMR Micalis, F-78350, Jouy-en-Josas, France.
Philippe BoulocInstitute for Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC), CEA, CNRS, Université Paris-Sud, F-91405, Orsay, France.
AgroParisTech · FRCommissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives · FRUniversité Paris-Sud · FRMicrobiologie de l’alimentation au service de la santé · FR

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

RNA-binding protein Hfq is a key component of the adaptive responses of many proteobacterial species including Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica and Vibrio cholera. In these organisms, the importance of Hfq largely stems from its participation to regulatory mechanisms involving small non-coding RNAs. In contrast, the function of Hfq in Gram-positive bacteria has remained elusive and somewhat controversial. In the present study, we have further addressed this point by comparing growth phenotypes and transcription profiles between wild-type and an hfq deletion mutant of the model Gram-positive bacterium, Bacillus subtilis. The absence of Hfq had no significant consequences on growth rates under nearly two thousand metabolic conditions and chemical treatments. The only phenotypic difference was a survival defect of B. subtilis hfq mutant in rich medium in stationary phase. Transcriptomic analysis correlated this phenotype with a change in the levels of nearly one hundred transcripts. Albeit a significant fraction of these RNAs (36%) encoded sporulation-related functions, analyses in a strain unable to sporulate ruled out sporulation per se as the basis of the hfq mutant's stationary phase fitness defect. When expressed in Salmonella, B. subtilis hfq complemented the sharp loss of viability of a degP hfq double mutant, attenuating the chronic σE-activated phenotype of this strain. However, B. subtilis hfq did not complement other regulatory deficiencies resulting from loss of Hfq-dependent small RNA activity in Salmonella indicating a limited functional overlap between Salmonella and B. subtilis Hfqs. Overall, this study confirmed that, despite structural similarities with other Hfq proteins, B. subtilis Hfq does not play a central role in post-transcriptional regulation but might have a more specialized function connected with stationary phase physiology. This would account for the high degree of conservation of Hfq proteins in all 17 B. subtilis strains whose genomes have been sequenced.

Indexed as

PhenotypeBacillus subtilisHost Factor 1 ProteinTranscriptomeHost Factor 1 Protein

Identifiers

PMID25915524
PMCPMC4410918
OpenAlexW2034482228

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.