Figure 4. The abundance of newly discovered streptococcal small RNA candidates (SSRCs) varied between growth phases.

A) The intracellular abundance of SSRCs at different growth phases. The abundance of each SSRC was determined over the course of growth (exponential phase, EX; early stationary phase, ES; late stationary phase, LS) through Northern blotting. Size markers (S) were run and their sizes are indicated at the left sides of Northern blots. The abundance of 5S RNA (5S) was also determined as a loading control and shown below each Northern blot. B) Abundance of each intracellular sRNA relative to that at the exponential growth phase. Abundance of sRNAs on Northern blots was determined by densitometry, normalized with the abundance of 5S RNA, and expressed relative to the abundance at the exponential growth phase.