Activation of EspA transcription mediated by the EspR wild type and mutants. Protein expression analysis of the M. tuberculosis H37RvΔespR strain complemented with an empty vector (pMY769) or a vector carrying an espR variant (pMYespR, pMYespRΔ10, pMYR70A, pMYK72A, and pMYR101A) under the control of a pristinamycin IA-inducible promoter (4, 27). Equal amounts (10 μg) of total protein from cell lysates were analyzed. GroEL2 was used as a loading control.