Figure 5. G39xxxG43 glycine zipper motif of Tde1 is required for DNase‐mediated killing of target cells during interbacterial competition.

- Interbacterial competition of Agrobacterium tumefaciens C58 ∆tdei and ∆tdei∆tssK expressing the Tde1 variants against E. coli cells was carried out on LB medium and E. coli survival rate was quantified by CFU counting.
- Interbacterial competition between various A. tumefaciens C58 strains and A. tumefaciens 1D1609 on AK medium and the competition outcome was shown by competitive index.
- Secretion assay for Tde1 and its variants co‐expressed with its immunity protein Tdi1 in A. tumefaciens C58 ∆tdei and ∆tdei∆tssK.
- In vivo plasmid DNA degradation assay. E. coli BW25113 carrying pJN105 empty vector or the derivatives expressing different variants of Tde1 was supplemented with 0.5% glucose (“−”) or 0.2% L‐arabinose (“+”) for 3 h to either repress or induce Tde1 production. The plasmids were then extracted to observe the DNA degradation, and the bottom panel showed western blots of specific Tde1 protein bands.
- Growth inhibition assay of Tde1 and its variants. E. coli BW25113 cells were induced by adding 0.2% L‐arabinose for Tde1 production. The OD600 values were measured every 15 min. The OD600 values of the 4 h post‐L‐arabinose induction were analyzed for statistical analysis. Graphs show mean ± SD of three biological repeats.
Data information: Western blots were detected with a specific antibody against Tde1, Hcp, or EF‐Tu serving as a loading and nonsecreted protein control. Protein markers are indicated in kDa. Data in panel A are mean ± SD of four biological repeats of two independent experiments (n = 4). Panels B and E show mean ± SD of three biological repeats (n = 3). One‐way ANOVA was used for the analysis of statistical significance followed by the Fisher's least significant difference (LSD) test for panels A and B while the Tukey's test was done for panel E. Different letters indicate statistically different groups of strains (P value, 3.63 × 10−4, 2.70 × 10−3, 2.3 × 10−15 for panels A, B, and E, respectively). Results in panels C and D are representative of three biological repeats.
Source data are available online for this figure.