OxyS RNA

OxyS RNA is a small non-coding RNA which is induced in response to oxidative stress in Escherichia coli. This RNA acts as a global regulator to activate or repress the expression of as many as 40 genes, by an antisense mechanism, including the fhlA-encoded transcriptional activator and the rpoS-encoded sigma(s) subunit of RNA polymerase. OxyS is bound by the Hfq protein, that increases the OxyS RNA interaction with its target messages. . The 109 nucleotide RNA is thought to be composed of three stem-loops.

Target genes of OxyS
A number of additional targets were recently predicted and verified using microarray analysis. These are listed below:
 * yobF - confirmed by Northern analysis
 * yaiZ
 * rumA
 * wrbA - confirmed by Northern analysis
 * ybaY - confirmed by Northern analysis