Fig 2. Expressing Gad proteins in Ty21a.
A. The three gad genes, gadA, gadB and gadC were cloned in tandem with their own ribosome binding sites under the control of an arabinose inducible promoter in a multi-copy plasmid pNW129 [37] to express these genes free from the typical complex regulatory network. B. The expression of Gad proteins was determined by Western blot with anti-Gad A/B antibody [35]. Gad A and Gad B are 98% similar at the protein level. The cloned GadA/B are very weakly expressed in the absence of arabinose induction, but Gad A/B are expressed in significant amounts as early as 2 hours after arabinose induction and their expression is increased over time. Gad A/B are not expressed in the negative control Ty21a containing the empty plasmid vector (Ty21a EV), but are expressed in overnight cultures of S. flexneri strain CFS100. A non-specific, antibody-binding band was used as the loading control; qualitative, rather than quantitative, levels of GadA/B expression were observed under different conditions.