Fig 1.

(A) Sequences of the 5′ noncoding DNA of the B. burgdorferi type strain B31, ending with the initiation codon (ATG) of the first erp gene of each locus. Identical nucleotides found in the majority of the 10 loci are boxed and shaded. All of the strain B31 erp loci contain at least 1 consensus EbfC-binding site (GTnAC), plus 1 or 2 additional half-sites (52). Each locus also contains a conserved BpaB-binding region, which consists of an initial binding site (TTATA) and a 19-bp flanking sequence that further stimulates BpaB binding (13; C. A. Adams, unpublished). Regions of noncoding DNA deleted from the mutant erp::gfp fusion constructs pBLS599 and pBLS672 are indicated. (B and C) PCR-amplified portions of DNA sequences bound by EbfC (A) or BpaB (C) in live B. burgdorferi, as assessed by ChIP followed by erp-specific PCR and cloning. Five clones were selected at random, and their inserts were sequenced. Polymorphisms that permit identification of specific erp loci are indicated with boldface italic type.