This entry represents the RNA-binding pleiotropic regulator Hfq, a small, Sm-like protein of bacteria [1]. It helps pair regulatory non-coding RNAs with complementary mRNA target regions. It enhances the elongation of poly(A) tails on mRNA [2]. It ap ...
This entry represents the RNA-binding pleiotropic regulator Hfq, a small, Sm-like protein of bacteria [1]. It helps pair regulatory non-coding RNAs with complementary mRNA target regions. It enhances the elongation of poly(A) tails on mRNA [2]. It appears also to protect RNase E recognition sites (A/U-rich sequences with adjacent stem-loop structures) from cleavage [3]. Being pleiotropic, it differs in some of its activities in different species. Hfq binds the non-coding regulatory RNA DsrA (see Rfam:RF00014) in the few species known to have it: Escherichia coli, Shigella flexneri, Salmonella spp. In Azorhizobium caulinodans, an hfq mutant is unable to express nifA, and Hfq is called NrfA, for nif regulatory factor [4]. The name Hfq reflects phenomenology as a host factor for phage Q-beta RNA replication.