Identification of seven new S. aureus small RNAs. (A) Northern blot experiments showing the expression of NAPP-predicted small RNAs of N315 S. aureus in nutrient-rich medium. Total RNAs were prepared from cultures in exponential, early stationary, and late stationary phases. Black wedges indicate the increased OD600: 0.2, 0.4, 0.8, 2, 3.5, 6, and 10 from left to right. Marker sizes are shown to the left of each blot. RNAs were detected using 32P-labeled oligonucleotides designed to pair with the CNEs (cf. Supplemental Table S7). The name that we gave to each small RNA (rsaOA to rsaOG) is indicated. As the genome contains intergenic sequences similar to rsaOF, the RsaOF probe could hybridize to RNAs expressed from regions other than that indicated. 5S RNA was used as a control. (B) Genes flanking detected small RNAs. Arrows indicate the direction of transcription. Plain arrows correspond to small RNAs. Empty arrows correspond to open reading frames. Transcription terminators were predicted using Erpin (Gautheret and Lambert 2001) and RNAMotif (Macke et al. 2001).
