FIG. 2.

Transcription of competence genes in the hdrM background. Wild-type UA140 and the hdrM mutant were tested for the expression levels of (A) comC, (B) comE, (C) comX, and (D) comY during the early, mid, and late log phases. Data are presented relative to the transcript abundance of the wild-type early log phase sample, which was arbitrarily assigned a value of 1. Black bars represent wild-type UA140, whereas the hdrM mutant is represented by dark gray bars. These results are the average of three independent experiments. Each experiment measured three independent clones for each sample. All experiments measuring transcription via real-time RT-PCR were normalized by using the 16S rRNA gene as a housekeeping control.