Figure 6. Analysis of the minicell phenotype of C. jejuni flagellar mutants.

(A) Quantification of the lengths of the cell bodies of wild-type C. jejuni and mutants lacking a motility gene. (B) Quantification of the lengths of the cell bodies of mutants lacking FlhF, FliF, FliM or FliN after treatment with cephalexin. Strains were grown in liquid broth in the absence (-) or presence (+) of 15 µg/ml cephalexin for 6 h. The lengths of the cell bodies were then measured. (C) Quantification of the lengths of the cell bodies of wild-type C. jejuni or mutants lacking FlhF, FliF, FliM, and FliN upon overexpression of flhG in trans. The mutants were complemented with either vector alone (-) or a plasmid to overexpress wild-type flhG (+ FlhG). (D). Quantification of the lengths of the cell bodies of wild-type C. jejuni, C. jejuni ΔflhG, and C. jejuni mutants lacking flhG and either fliF, fliM, or fliN. For (A-D), the lengths of the cell bodies of individual bacteria were measured. The data are reported as the percentage of the population with the following cell lengths:<0.5 µm, minicells (red); 0.5–1 µm (blue); 1–2 µm (yellow); and >2 µm (brown). Data represents the average of two experiments. Bars represent standard errors.