FIG 1.

Transcriptional profiling of cells containing the conjugative plasmid pLS20. (A) Table showing overall changes in transcription levels between cells carrying or lacking pLS20. (B) Summary of transcriptional changes due to the presence of pLS20 in Bacillus subtilis strain 3610 during mid-exponential growth. Chromosomal genes affected in plasmid-carrying cells were grouped and listed according to functional categories of the SubtiList database (http://genolist.pasteur.fr/SubtiList/). The presence of pLS20 mainly affects the expression of genes that encode proteins belonging to the cell envelope and cellular processes, such as transporters, lipoproteins, and cell wall and membrane bioenergetics, as well as to the intermediary metabolism. Misc, miscellaneous. (C) Quantitative RT-PCR analysis of selected genes affected by the presence of the conjugative plasmid pLS20 during mid-exponential growth. Shown is the relative (Rel.) expression of genes from pLS20-carrying cells compared to that of pLS20-free cells. The expression level of the indicated genes was internally normalized to the transcript levels of sigA and rpsJ. RNA was isolated from two independently growing cultures of each strain, and quantitative RT-PCRs were performed in duplicate for each culture (n = 4). Errors bars represent standard deviations from the means, and statistical significance was calculated using the Relative Expression Software Tool V2.0.13 (*, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01).