Plasmid pLACP was recovered from one of the transductants and used to sequence the cloned fragment. A 1000-bp DNA fragment starting

from primer KMR6 corresponding to the 3′ end of MudJ was subsequently sequenced. To monitor BEZ235 the effect of YfeR on yfeR gene transcription, the complete yfeR gene, including the promoter region, was amplified using primers OSMTE and OSMTB, which introduce EcoRI and BamHI restriction sites, respectively. Then this fragment was cleaved with EcoRI–BamHI and ligated to plasmid pLG338-30 digested with the same enzymes, yielding plasmid pLGYFER. Total cellular RNA was isolated from mid-exponential phase (OD600 nm=0.5) using the acid phenol method. Plasmid pETYFERr, containing nucleotides +373 to +704 of the yfeR coding sequence under the control of the T7 RNA polymerase promoter, was used to generate the yfeR probe. Linearized pETYFERr was used as a template for the retention of antisense radiolabeled probes to the yfeR gene by in vitro transcription with T7 RNA polymerase (Roche) in the presence of [α-32P]UTP. The purity of the probe was checked by 6 M urea-polyacrylamide

gel electrophoresis (PAGE). For the RNase protection assay, 25 μg of total RNA were hybridized to an excess of radiolabeled probe. The nonhybridized RNA and probe were degraded with RNase-ONE (Promega). The protected probe was separated in 6 M urea-PAGE and visualized by autoradiography. To study the influence of yfeR gene product in yfeH expression we constructed an yfeH translational fusion. A PCR fragment including the yfeR gene, the intergenic region between yfeH and yfeR and 14 bp from the start of yfeH was generated click here with primers CITB and OSMTB. This fragment contained a SalI restriction site in the yfeR gene and primer CITB introduced a BamHI site at the start of the yfeH gene. The PCR fragment was SalI and BamHI digested and ligated to SalI-BamHI-digested pLG338-30 and to a Bam HI-lacZ cartridge obtained from plasmid

Acesulfame Potassium pMC931. The resulting plasmid was termed pLGYFEEHLAC. To obtain a yfeR deletion mutant from strain TT1704 we used the method described by Datsenko & Wanner (2000). The FRT-flanked kanamycin resistance of plasmid pKD4 was amplified by PCR with primers YFERP1 and YFERP2. Nucleotides +40 to +921 of yfeR coding sequence were deleted and replaced by a Kmr cassette. To overexpress His-YfeR, plasmid pETYFERHIS was constructed. The yfeR gene of S. Typhimurium was amplified using primers YFERNDE, which introduces an NdeI target just at the translation start site, and YFERXHO which eliminates the stop codon of the yfeR gene by introducing an XhoI restriction site. Then, the PCR fragment was NdeI–XhoI cleaved and cloned into pET22b, resulting in plasmid pETYFERHIS, which contains the complete coding sequence of yfeR gene, being fused to a His-Tag at C-terminal end. The plasmid was transformed into E. coli BL21 (DE3) and YfeR expression was induced at OD600 nm 0.9 by adding 0.