Figure 5.

Impact of mutant forms of RNA‐IN on transposase expression in hfq⁺/hfq⁻ strains. Plasmids encoding WT and mutant forms of a transposase‐lac Z translational fusion were transformed into hfq⁺ (DBH107) or hfq⁻ (DBH12) cells and after growth of transformants to mid‐exponential phase in LB media, β‐galactosidase activity was measured. Error bars show the standard error of the mean for three independent experiments (n = 12). RNA was extracted from cells immediately before the Miller assay and RNA‐IN was detected by primer extension (lower panel). lpp mRNA was used as a loading control. The relative transcript level from two isolates of each strain was quantified and normalized to WT RNA‐IN in hfq⁺ (set at 1). The relative translation efficiency for each strain was calculated by dividing Miller units by relative transcript levels (shown as circles on the graph).