FIG 2.

(A) Organization of the hbz gene cluster of strain SponMu compared to the formerly reported one. The arrows indicate the size and direction of transcription of each gene or ORF. The cluster organization in this study (cluster b) is modified from that of a cluster reported previously (19) (cluster a). A new ORF, designated hbzG, was identified, and the termination codon for hbzI was relocated on the basis of the resequencing results obtained in this study. The G in the box at the top was missing from the cluster in the previous report, resulting in a frameshift and early termination of the ORF. The dotted lines above the sequence indicate the false reading frames of hbzI, whereas the solid lines beneath the sequence are the corrected ones. (B) Locations of the primer sets used for RT-PCR and the lengths of the DNA fragments amplified by RT-PCR. (C) Agarose gel electrophoresis of RT-PCR products obtained from total RNA isolated from 3-hydroxybenzoate-induced SponMu cells. The primer pairs used are denoted above the lanes. Lanes +, reactions carried out with reverse transcriptase; lanes −, negative-control reactions carried out without reverse transcriptase; lanes M1 and M2, different ladder DNA markers with fragments of the indicated sizes.