@article{438,
  abstract     = {The MazF toxin sequence-specifically cleaves single-stranded RNA upon various stressful conditions, and it is activated as a part of the mazEF toxin–antitoxin module in Escherichia coli. Although autoregulation of mazEF expression through the MazE antitoxin-dependent transcriptional repression has been biochemically characterized, less is known about post-transcriptional autoregulation, as well as how both of these autoregulatory features affect growth of single cells during conditions that promote MazF production. Here, we demonstrate post-transcriptional autoregulation of mazF expression dynamics by MazF cleaving its own transcript. Single-cell analyses of bacterial populations during ectopic MazF production indicated that two-level autoregulation of mazEF expression influences cell-to-cell growth rate heterogeneity. The increase in growth rate heterogeneity is governed by the MazE antitoxin, and tuned by the MazF-dependent mazF mRNA cleavage. Also, both autoregulatory features grant rapid exit from the stress caused by mazF overexpression. Time-lapse microscopy revealed that MazF-mediated cleavage of mazF mRNA leads to increased temporal variability in length of individual cells during ectopic mazF overexpression, as explained by a stochastic model indicating that mazEF mRNA cleavage underlies temporal fluctuations in MazF levels during stress.},
  author       = {Nikolic, Nela and Bergmiller, Tobias and Vandervelde, Alexandra and Albanese, Tanino and Gelens, Lendert and Moll, Isabella},
  journal      = {Nucleic Acids Research},
  number       = {6},
  pages        = {2918--2931},
  publisher    = {Oxford University Press},
  title        = {{Autoregulation of mazEF expression underlies growth heterogeneity in bacterial populations}},
  doi          = {10.1093/nar/gky079},
  volume       = {46},
  year         = {2018},
}