pIJ702-rshAbldG was constructed by inserting a bldG cassette prepared by PCR (primers

are shown in Supporting Information, Table PD-0332991 order S1) between the PstI and KpnI sites of pIJ702-rshA. The bldG cassette contained its own promoter region, which directed the expression of the coding sequence. For genetic complementation, the 957-bp DNA fragment containing the bldG coding sequence (cds) and its promoter region was amplified by PCR using the primers GCF/GCR and cloned between the EcoRI and HindIII sites of pKU463 to form pBG. pBG was then introduced into the bldG mutant by transformation to generate a kanamycin-resistant transformant carrying the plasmid integrated at the K38-1 site (nucleotide sequence accession no. AB251919). Disruption of bldG was carried out by a homologous recombination technique based on REDIRECT technology (Gust et al., 2003). The cosmid clone SGR1G10 used for bldG knockout in S. griseus containing the region corresponding to nucleotides 3874894–3914177 in the GSK1120212 research buy genome sequence database was obtained in our study using SuperCos1 (Stratagene, Japan,

Tokyo) as a vector. An apramycin resistance gene cassette was prepared by PCR using the primers DisGF/DisGR and used for the replacement for the bldG cds by in vivo recombination using λ RED. The resulting apramycin-resistant cosmids purified from Escherichia coli GM2163 were introduced into the wild-type strain of S. griseus. Apramycin-resistant recombinants were then screened and checked for true recombination by PCR using appropriate primer sets. All mutants obtained exhibited the identical bald phenotype; hence, one of them was designated as the bldG mutant. The transcriptional activities of the promoters preceding the rshA-sigH operon (PH1, the σH-dependent promoter), sigN (PN1), and rpp operon (Prpp) were studied by S1 protection analysis. Methods and conditions for RNA preparation and S1 nuclease mapping were previously

described (Kieser et al., 2000; Kelemen et al., 2001; Takano et al., 2007). The probes for PH1, PN1, and Prpp were prepared by PCR using primers HS1-F/HS1-R* for PH1, NS1-F/NS1-R* for PN1, and RS1-F/RS1-R* for Prpp, respectively (primers indicated with an asterisk were labelled at its 5′-end Parvulin with [γ-32P] ATP using T4-polynucleotide kinase). Preparation of a C-terminally histidine-tagged RshA (RshA-6xHis) was described previously (Takano et al., 2003). For preparation of RshA carrying an N-terminal glutathione-S-transferase (GST-RshA), an rshA cassette was amplified using the PCR primers Rex-F/Rex-R and cloned between the BamHI/EcoRI sites of pGEX-4T-2 (GE Healthcare, Tokyo, Japan). For BldG-6xHis, a bldG cassette was amplified using primers Gex-F/Gex-R and cloned between the NdeI/HindIII sites of pET26-b+ (Takara Shuzo). The E.