RNA turnover and processing have now been demonstrated to be important steps that directly affect protein synthesis and the cell’s ability to survive in nature. However, the analysis of mRNA decay and polyadenylation in Escherichia coli has long been considered technically difficult. The development over the past 15 years of methods for the isolation and characterization of both mRNA and polyadenylated species has made the study of these important pathways of RNA metabolism more straightforward (Arraiano et al., 1988; O’Hara et al., 1995; Mohanty and Kushner, 1999)
