Table 1.

Variation and stability of the rpsO, rpsOΔ and rpsT transcripts as a function of Hfq quantity.

	rpsO mRNA (**)		rpsOΔ mRNA (**)
Strains	t1/2 (min) (*)	Relative RNA abundance at T = 0	t1/2 (min) (*)	Relative RNA abundance at T = 0
wt	0.98+/-0.12	100
hfq	1.79+/-0.13	10.3
wt/pGEM3	1.17+/-0.14	100
wt/pTX367	0.98+/-0.16	222
wt/pΔS15AUG	1.13+/-0.1	100	3.16+/-0.07	100
hfq/pΔS15AUG	2.09+/-0.12	50	4.67+/-0.09	62.5
	rpsT mRNA
Strains	t1/2 (min) (*)	Relative RNA abundance at T = 0
wt P1-t1	1.31+/-0.17	100
wt P2-t1	1.57+/-0.17	100
hfq P1-t1	2.42+/-0.12	66.7
hfq P2-t1	5.43+/-0.07	16.9

(*) Half-lives of transcripts were measured in strains N3433 (wt) and IBPC929 (hfq), transformed, when indicated, with pGEM3 empty vector, its derivative pTX367 expressing the hfq gene, or with plasmid pΔS15AUG bearing the constitutively expressed truncated rpsO gene.

(**) The rpsO and the rpsOΔ transcripts originated from the chromosome and the pΔS15AUG plasmid, respectively.