(618g) Invited Talk: Novel Systems-Based Approaches for Characterizing Regulatory RNAs and Their Overlapping Networks in Bacteria

Bacterial regulatory RNAs enable dynamic global responses to stresses caused by changes in environmental conditions. These global regulators affect vast networks of targets at, frequently, multiple biological levels. Given their relevance to mechanisms of pathogenesis, understanding their functions is a goal in medicine. While advances in omics-based technologies has led to the discovery of hundreds of bacterial regulatory RNAs throughout a large number of pathogens, their identification and characterization has lagged. Even in the model gram-negative organism, Escherichia coli, only ~40% and 60% of sRNAs have had at least one transcriptional regulator or post-transcriptional target confirmed, respectively. Additionally, the mechanistic roles of RNA-binding proteins in sRNA regulation remains elusive. We have devised a holistic multi-tiered approach using in vivo omics datasets over a variety of cellular conditions to better characterized sRNA systems. In this talk, we will describe our recent advances in the context of the bacterial Carbon Storage Regulatory System (CsrA) and will discuss how insights obtained from these approaches can be used in the basic mechanistic characterization of newly discovered RNAs. The talk will also highlight our use of these methods in conjunction with new biophysical model and machine learning approaches for expanding our understanding of sRNA-based regulation in pathogenic-relevant pathways.