The amount of peptidoglycan in the isolated sacculi was measured using the silkworm larvae plasma (SLP) reagent set (Wako Pure Chemical Industries Ltd, Osaka) as described previously (Tsuchiya et al., 1996; van Langevelde et al., 1998). The amount of peptidoglycan in the samples was calculated from the standard curve obtained with peptidoglycan of Micrococcus luteus (Wako Pure Chemical Industries Ltd). As reported previously, UK-371804 ic50 deletion mutants of rodZ (yfgA) are nonmotile (Inoue et al., 2007; Niba et al., 2007). In order to investigate whether this was due to the altered expression of flagella genes in them, their promoter activities were examined using three classes of lacZ fusion constructs

of flagella genes (Table 1). The expression

of most of the class 2 and class 3 genes examined was apparently reduced. In contrast, the transcription of the class 1 genes flhDC was not reduced, indicating that rodZ does not directly affect the master regulator of flagella synthesis. The tar operon of class 3 that contains genes required for chemotaxis was an exception, suggesting a regulatory mechanism that might not be quite the same as other flagella genes. Because the growth rate of the ΔrodZ mutant was selleck products significantly reduced and the expression of flagella genes might depend on the growth phase, we also monitored β-galactosidase activities of the fusion genes at various growth stages. The fliA and fliC promoter activities were clearly VAV2 reduced in the ΔrodZ mutant throughout the growth stages examined, while the flhD promoter exhibited similar activities between wild type and mutant cells (data not shown). In addition, during the course of the assay, we observed a significant lysis of ΔrodZ cells after the middle logarithmic growth stage. This seemed to reflect the cell wall defect as we reported previously (Niba et al., 2007). As the expression of most flagella genes was reduced, but still present at a significant level in the ΔrodZ mutant, we examined their flagella by electron microscopy (Fig. 1). As reported (Shiomi et al., 2008; Bendezúet al., 2009), mutant cells were mostly round. Surprisingly, however, they possessed

many flagella especially at the late logarithmic phase. At this growth stage, many of the mutant cells appeared not only of a spherical shape, but swollen with absorbed staining solution and their contours were not clear (Fig. 1c). Some resembled broken sacculi without contents (Fig. 1d). These aberrant phenotypes were suppressed by the introduction of a low-copy plasmid pBADs-rodZ that expressed a tagged RodZ. However, this was not the case with its derivative pBADs-rodZΔHTH that lacked the HTH motif of RodZ (amino acid residues 30–49). Therefore, we interpreted the results to indicate that the HTH motif is essential for the function of RodZ. The ΔrodZ cells carrying plasmid pBADs-rodZΔHTH also remained nonmotile (data not shown).