The Pseudomon-Rho RNA motif refers to a conserved RNA

RNA

Ribonucleic acid , or RNA, is one of the three major macromolecules that are essential for all known forms of life....

 structure that was discovered using bioinformatics

Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics is the application of computer science and information technology to the field of biology and medicine. Bioinformatics deals with algorithms, databases and information systems, web technologies, artificial intelligence and soft computing, information and computation theory, software...

. The RNAs that conform to this motif (see diagram) are found in species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 within the genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 Pseudomonas

Pseudomonas

Pseudomonas is a genus of gammaproteobacteria, belonging to the family Pseudomonadaceae containing 191 validly described species.Recently, 16S rRNA sequence analysis has redefined the taxonomy of many bacterial species. As a result, the genus Pseudomonas includes strains formerly classified in the...

, as well as the related Azotobacter vinelandii

Azotobacter vinelandii

Azotobacter vinelandii is diazotroph that can fix nitrogen while grown aerobically. It is a genetically tractable system that is used to study nitrogen fixation...

. They are consistently located in what could be the 5' untranslated regions of gene

Gene

A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...

s that encode the Rho factor

Rho factor

A ρ factor is a prokaryotic protein involved in the termination of transcription.Rho factor is an essential transcription protein in prokaryotes. In Escherichia coli, it is a ~275 kD hexamer of identical subunits. Each subunit has an RNA-binding domain and an ATP-hydrolysis domain...

 protein

Protein

Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...

, and this arrangement in bacteria

Bacteria

Bacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...

 suggested that Pseudomon-Rho RNAs might be cis-regulatory element

Cis-regulatory element

A cis-regulatory element or cis-element is a region of DNA or RNA that regulates the expression of genes located on that same molecule of DNA . This term is constructed from the Latin word cis, which means "on the same side as". These cis-regulatory elements are often binding sites for one or...

s that regulate concentrations of the Rho protein.