Figure 5. Effects of sRNA overexpression on swarming motility.

(a) Swarming motility was investigated on soft agar plates (0.6% Eiken Agar, 0.5% glucose, 1% tryptone, 0.5% yeast extract, 0.5% NaCl) containing 1 mM IPTG and 100 μg/mL ampicillin. Overnight cultures of MG1655 cells harboring each sRNA-expressing plasmid were inoculated onto plates and incubated at 37 °C for 16 h. A representative image of at least three independent experimental sets is shown. (b) The distance of the swarming branch was measured and compared to the distance of control strain harboring the pHMB1 vector. Results are presented as the average of at least three separate experiments and the error bars represent standard deviation. Normalized motility of the control strain is indicated with a black bar, and strains displaying >1.5-fold changes with a dark grey bar.