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Compositional Properties and Thermal Adaptation of SRP-RNA in Bacteria and Archaea

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Abstract

Previous studies have reported a positive correlation between the GC content of the double-stranded regions of structural RNAs and the optimal growth temperature (OGT) in prokaryotes. These observations led to the hypothesis that natural selection favors an increase in GC content to ensure the correct folding and the structural stability of the molecule at high temperature. To date these studies have focused mainly on ribosomal and transfer RNAs. Therefore, we addressed the question of the relationship between GC content and OGT in a different and universally conserved structural RNA, the RNA component of the signal recognition particle (SRP). To this end we generated the secondary structures of SRP-RNAs for mesophilic, thermophilic, and hyperthermophilic bacterial and archaeal species. The analysis of the GC content in the stems and loops of the SRP-RNA of these organisms failed to detect a relationship between the GC contents in the stems of this structural RNA and the growth temperature of bacteria. By contrast, we found that in archaea the GC content in the stem regions of SRP-RNA is highest in hyperthermophiles, intermediate in thermophiles, and lower in mesophiles. In these organisms, we demonstrated a clear positive correlation between the GC content of the stem regions of their SRP-RNAs and their OGT. This correlation was confirmed by a phylogenetic nonindependence analysis. Thus we conclude that in archaea the increase in GC content in the stem regions of SRP-RNA is an adaptation response to environmental temperature.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Drs. F. Langa, and J. Y. Zhang for their critical reading of the manuscript and suggestions. We are also grateful to Jean-Christophe Aude for helping with the statistical analysis. Dr. C. Brochier is gratefully acknowledged for providing the phylogenetic tree of the archaea based on concatenated ribosomal proteins. We thank the two anonymous referees for their helpful comments.

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  1. Institut Jacques Monod, CNRS UMR7592, Université Paris Diderot-Paris 7, Bat. Buffon, 75205, Paris Cedex 13, France

    Francisco Miralles

  2. Department of Genetics Development and Molecular Pathology, Institut Cochin, 24 rue du Faubourg Saint-Jacques, 75014, Paris, France

    Francisco Miralles

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  1. Francisco Miralles
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Correspondence to Francisco Miralles.

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Miralles, F. Compositional Properties and Thermal Adaptation of SRP-RNA in Bacteria and Archaea. J Mol Evol 70, 181–189 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-009-9319-1

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