NR = no expression ratio. ArcA as an activator Several of the genes involved in regulating flagellar biosynthesis, motility, chemotaxis, selleckchem sugar transport, metabolism, and glycogen biosynthesis were found to be anaerobically activated by ArcA (Figure 3D-F and Additional file 1: Table S1). In particular, several of the middle (class 2) flagellar genes and late flagellar (class 3) genes had lower transcript levels in the arcA mutant than in the WT strain (Figure 3D-F). There was no significant difference in the transcript levels of the early flagellar genes (class 1) flhD and

flhC, whose gene products FlhD/FlhC are the master regulators of flagellar biosynthesis (Figure 3E). Additionally, several newly identified flagellar genes [43]

(i. e., mcpA, mcpC, and cheV) had lower expression levels in the arcA mutant than in the WT (Additional file 1: Table S1), while the expression of mcpB was not GF120918 in vitro affected. Furthermore, genes coding for transcriptional repressor CytR, nitrite reductase, 2-dexoyribose-5-phosphate aldolase, thymidine phosphorylase, lysine/cadaverine transport protein, putrescine/ornithine antiporter, ornithine decarboxylase, ethanolamine operon, and propanediol operon as well as its transcriptional regulator PocR were activated by ArcA (Figure 3B and 3C, and Additional file 1: Table S1). The expression of SPI-1 associated genes was not affected by a mutation in arcA. However, two SPI-3 genes, slsA, encoding a putative inner membrane protein required for colonization of chickens and calves [1, 44], and STM3784, a putative sugar phosphotransferase, were activated by ArcA as their expression levels were significantly lower

in the mutant than in the WT (Figure 3A and Additional many file 1: Table S1). Phenotype of the arcA mutant Next, we correlated some of the microarray findings with the corresponding phenotypes of the WT and the arcA mutant strains. a. Flagellar biosynthesis and swarming motility The microarray data showed that, in anaerobiosis, the expression of the flagellar biosynthesis, motility, and chemotaxis genes was lower in the arcA mutant than in the WT. Therefore, we selleck compared the swarming motility of the WT and the arcA mutant in soft agar under anaerobic conditions (Table 4). The data indicated that the arcA mutant was ~100% non-motile compared to the WT and that the inclusion of parcA complemented (~57%) this phenotype. We also compared the WT and the arcA mutant under anaerobic conditions for the presence of flagella by using SEM (Figure 4A and 4C, left panel) and TEM (Figure 4B and 4D, right panel). The data (Table 4 and Figure 4) clearly showed that the arcA mutant Lacked flagella and was non-motile. Table 4 Effect of the arcA mutation on swarming motility under anaerobic conditions   Diameter (cm) Genotype Anaerobic a % b WT 8.0 ± 0.1 100 arcA mutant 0.0 ± 0.0 0 Mutant/parcA 4.6 ± 0.