DsrA RNA is a non-coding RNA that regulates both transcription, by overcoming transcriptional silencing by the nucleoid-associated H-NS protein,[1] and translation, by promoting efficient translation of the stress sigma factor, RpoS.

The sequence of the first stem-loop of DsrA is complementary with the upstream leader portion of RpoS messenger RNA, suggesting that pairing of DsrA with the RpoS message might be important for translational regulation.

The study concluded that the sRNA contains a dynamic conformational equilibrium for its second stem–loop which might be an important mechanism for DsrA to regulate the translations of its multiple target mRNAs.

[4] There is evidence that DsrA RNA can self-assemble into nanostructures through antisense interactions of three self-complementary regions.

[5][6] There is experimental evidence to suggest that DsrA interacts with the protein-coding genes hns,[7][8][9] rbsD,[7] argR,[7] ilvI[7] and rpoS[10][11][12][13] via an anti-sense mechanism.