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Regulation of messenger RNA stability is pivotal for programmed gene expression in bacteria and is achieved by a myriad of molecular mechanisms. By bulk sequencing of 5' monophosphorylated mRNA decay intermediates (5'P), we show that cotranslational mRNA degradation is conserved among both Gram-positive and -negative bacteria. We demonstrate that, in species with 5'-3' exonucleases, the exoribonuclease RNase J tracks the trailing ribosome to produce an in vivo single-nucleotide toeprint of the 5' position of the ribosome. In other species lacking 5'-3' exonucleases, ribosome positioning alters endonucleolytic cleavage sites. Using our metadegradome (5'P degradome) sequencing approach, we characterize 5'P mRNA decay intermediates in 96 species including Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Synechocystis spp. and Prevotella copri and identify codon- and gene-level ribosome stalling responses to stress and drug treatment. We also apply 5'P sequencing to complex clinical and environmental microbiomes and demonstrate that metadegradome sequencing provides fast, species-specific posttranscriptional characterization of responses to drug or environmental perturbations. Finally we produce a degradome atlas for 96 species to enable analysis of mechanisms of RNA degradation in bacteria. Our work paves the way for the application of metadegradome sequencing to investigation of posttranscriptional regulation in unculturable species and complex microbial communities.

The demand for scalable, rapid and sensitive COVID-19 diagnostics is particularly pressing at present to help contain the spread of infection and prevent overwhelming the capacity of health systems. While high-income countries have managed to rapidly expand diagnostic capacities, such is not the case in resource-limited settings of low- to medium-income countries. We report the development of an integrated modular centrifugal microfluidic platform costing less than 250 USD to perform loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) of viral RNA directly from heat-inactivated nasopharyngeal swab samples. The platform was validated with a panel of 131 nasopharyngeal swab samples collected from symptomatic COVID-19 patients., Part of ISBN 9781733419031QC 20230614

Small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) are prevailing components of the chromatin-associatedtranscriptome and many orphan snoRNAs are associated with protein coding genes in the genome ofDrosophila melanogaster. We have studied a specific chromatin-associated snoRNA, snoRNA:U3:9B,that binds to immune response genes. Using a Sindbis virus replicon model, we have shownthat snoRNA:U3:9B depletion in S2 cells leads to reduced immune response gene expression andreduced chromatin accessibility at target immune response genes. We have used CRISPR/Cas9 tocreate a snoRNA:U3:9B knock-out fly strain and revealed that snoRNA:U3:9B-deficient larvae areviable in control conditions, but fail to develop into pupae when challenged by expression of the Sindbisvirus replicon, which suggests that this snoRNA is essential for the activation of an effective antiviralresponse. In agreement with this proposal, the chromatin decompaction and gene activation normallyobserved at immune response gene loci in response to Sindbis replicon expression are abolished inthe snoRNA:U3:9B-deficient larvae, as shown by ATAC-qPCR and RT-qPCR analyses. Moreover,ChIRP-qPCR experiments have shown that snoRNA:U3:9B associates with the immune responsegenes in vivo, which suggests that the defects observed on chromatin compaction and gene expressionare due to direct regulatory events. In summary, our results reveal the existence of an epigeneticmechanism that requires snoRNA:U3:9B to modulate local chromatin accessibility and enable theinduction of immune response genes.