Fig. 2.

Sequence corrections in the C. jejuni M1 flagellin locus and motility analysis of flagellin locus gene deletion mutants. (a) Insertion of three A nucleotides at the 3′ of CJM1_1295 led to elimination of the TAA stop codon and resulted in CJM1_1295 and CJM1_1294 being merged into one large ORF. (b) Motility was assessed on 0.4 % (w/v) agar BHI plates after overnight incubation. Deletion of the full flaB CDS (flaB* mutant; CJM1_1295–1294) did not affect motility in clones B and C; however, we observed a very marginal decrease in motility in clone A. In contrast, mutant clones in which flaA (CJM1_1296) or both the flaA and flaB gene (flaAB; CJM1_1296 and CJM1_1295–1294) were deleted all showed severely attenuated motility. Differential motility of mutant clones was tested against the coupled WT strain with a Mann–Whitney test (n = 3). Data shown are the mean and sem, with **P < 0.01.