The non-coding RNA world of the bacterial pathogen Listeria monocytogenes

In recent years, Listeria monocytogenes has emerged as a model organism in infection biology and also become an attractive system for the study of regulatory RNAs in pathogenic bacteria. Due to the recent completion of several transcriptomic studies, it is now clear that L. monocytogenes possesses a large repertoire of both cis- and trans-encoded RNAs. These include numerous small RNAs (sRNAs) expressed during infection, widespread transcription of both short and long antisense RNAs (asRNAs) and an array of cis-acting regulatory RNA elements. In this review we highlight the recent advances in non-coding RNA research in L. monocytogenes with a particular focus on emerging themes of RNA-based regulation.