The mrsC gene of Escherichia coli is required for mRNA turnover and cell growth, and strains containing the temperature-sensitive mrsC505 allele have longer half-lives than wild-type controls for total pulse-labeled and individual mRNAs (L. L. Granger et al., J. Bacteriol. 180:1920-1928, 1998). The cloned mrsC gene contains a long open reading frame beginning at an initiator UUG codon, confirmed by N-terminal amino acid sequencing, encoding a 70,996-Da protein with a consensus ATP-binding domain. mrsC is identical to the independently identified ftsH gene except for three additional amino acids at the N terminus (T. Tomoyasu et al., J. Bacteriol. 175:1344-1351, 1993). The purified protein had a Km of 28 microM for ATP and a Vmax of 21.2 nmol/microg/min. An amino-terminal glutathione S-transferase-MrsC fusion protein retained ATPase activity but was not biologically active. A glutamic acid replacement of the highly conserved lysine within the ATP-binding motif (mrsC201) abolished the complementation of the mrsC505 mutation, confirming that the ATPase activity is required for MrsC function in vivo. In addition, the mrsC505 allele conferred a temperature-sensitive HflB phenotype, while the hflB29 mutation promoted mRNA stability at both 30 and 44 degrees C, suggesting that the inviability associated with the mrsC505 allele is not related to the defect in mRNA decay. The data presented provide the first direct evidence for the involvement of a membrane-bound protein in mRNA decay in E. coli.