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Abstract

NAD is a coenzyme central to metabolism that was also found to serve as a 5’-terminal cap of bacterial and eukaryotic RNA species. The presence and functionality of NAD-capped RNAs (NAD-RNAs) in the archaeal domain remain to be characterized in detail. Here, by combining LC-MS and NAD captureSeq methodology, we quantified the total levels of NAD-RNAs and determined the identity of NAD-RNAs in the two model archaea, Sulfolobus acidocaldarius and Haloferax volcanii. A complementary differential RNA-Seq (dRNA-Seq) analysis revealed that NAD transcription start sites (NAD-TSS) correlate with well-defined promoter regions and often overlap with primary transcription start sites (pTSS). The population of NAD-RNAs in the two archaeal organisms shows clear differences, with S. acidocaldarius possessing more capped small non-coding RNAs (sncRNAs) and leader sequences. The NAD-cap did not prevent 5’→3’ exonucleolytic activity by the RNase Saci-aCPSF2. To investigate enzymes that facilitate the removal of the NAD-cap, four Nudix proteins of S. acidocaldarius were screened. None of the recombinant proteins showed NAD decapping activity. Instead, the Nudix protein Saci_NudT5 showed activity after incubating NAD-RNAs at elevated temperatures. Hyperthermophilic environments promote the thermal degradation of NAD into the toxic product ADPR. Incorporating NAD into RNAs and the regulation of ADPR-RNA decapping by Saci_NudT5 is proposed to provide additional layers of maintaining stable NAD levels in archaeal cells.Importance This study reports the first characterization of 5’-terminally modified RNA molecules in Archaea and establishes that NAD-RNA modifications, previously only identified in the other two domains of life, are also prevalent in the archaeal model organisms Sulfolobus acidocaldarius and Haloferax volcanii. We screened for NUDIX hydrolases that could remove the NAD-RNA cap and showed that none of these enzymes removed NAD modifications, but we discovered an enzyme that hydrolyzes ADPR-RNA. We propose that these activities influence the stabilization of NAD and its thermal degradation to potentially toxic ADPR products at elevated growth temperatures.