Redox-Regulated RNA Helicase Expression

In photosynthetic organisms it is becoming increasingly evident that light-driven shifts in redox potential act as a sensor that initiates alterations in gene expression at both the level of transcription and translation. This report provides evidence that the expression of a cyanobacterial RNA helicase gene,crhR, is controlled at the level of transcription and mRNA stability by a complex series of interacting mechanisms that are redox regulated. Transcript accumulation correlates with reduction of the electron transport chain between QA in photosystem II and QO in cytb  6  f, whenSynechocystis sp. strain PCC 6803 is cultured photoautotrophically or photomixotrophically and subjected to darkness and/or electron transport inhibitors or illumination that preferentially excites photosystem II. crhR mRNA stability is also regulated by a redox responsive mechanism, which differs from that affecting accumulation and does not involve signaling initiated by photoreceptors. The data are most consistent with plastoquinol/cyt b  6  finteraction as the sensor initiating a signal transduction cascade resulting in accumulation of the crhR transcript. Functionally, CrhR RNA unwinding could act as a linker between redox regulated transcription and translation. The potential for translational regulation of redox-induced gene expression through RNA helicase-catalyzed modulation of RNA secondary structure is discussed.