TY - JOUR T1 - Essential Requirements for Robust Signaling in Hfq Dependent Small RNA Networks A1 - Adamson, David N. A1 - Lim, Han N. Y1 - 2011/08/18 N2 - Author Summary Bacteria have small RNAs (sRNAs) which are important modulators of gene expression. Many of these sRNAs require the Hfq protein to mediate their binding to specific target mRNAs which alters the translation and/or degradation of the mRNAs. The Hfq protein has a difficult task; it has to correctly pair cognate sRNAs and target mRNAs from among a large number of possible combinations and anneal them before the RNAs degrade. Furthermore, the process must be robust to changes in the number and types of sRNAs and target mRNAs that are transcribed and changes in the Hfq concentration. Here we show that Hfq can most successfully achieve its task when sRNAs and target mRNAs are not unnecessarily sequestered in Hfq complexes. The cell can accomplish this via cooperative binding of sRNAs and target mRNAs to Hfq and/or by rapid RNA dissociation from Hfq complexes. These findings reveal the requirements for efficient and robust sRNA signaling which are important for understanding the regulation of gene expression in diverse cell processes, for devising strategies that inhibit Hfq activity during pathogenesis and for the rational construction of synthetic circuits. JF - PLOS Computational Biology JA - PLOS Computational Biology VL - 7 IS - 8 UR - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002138 SP - e1002138 EP - PB - Public Library of Science M3 - doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002138 ER -