IMES-1 RNA motif

The IMES-1 RNA motif is a conserved RNA structure that was identified in marine environmental sequences by two studies based on metagenomics and bioinformatics, the first analyzing metatranscriptome (RNA) data[2] and the second using metagenome (DNA) data.

However, the species that use these RNAs are most closely related to known alphaproteobacteria and gammaproteobacteria.

[2] IMES-1 RNAs make up a significant portion of marine RNA transcripts[2] and are exceptionally abundant in that over five times as many IMES-1 RNAs were found as ribosomes[1] in RNAs sampled from the Pacific Ocean.

[2][3] Only two bacterial RNAs are known (6S RNA and transfer RNA) to be more highly transcribed than ribosomes.

IMES-1 RNAs were also detected in abundance in Block Island Sound in the Atlantic Ocean.

Consensus secondary structure of IMES-1 RNAs. This figure is adapted from supplementary data of a previous publication. [ 1 ] The indicated "transcription terminator" is predicted as a Rho-independent transcription terminator .