DegU phosphorylation represses the basal expression of comK in motB and hag knockouts. The expression curves show PcomK-luc expression in a comK deletion background. The degUD56N allele as well as the degS deletion bypass Δhag (A) and ΔmotB (B) for expression from PcomK. Strains used were as follows: ΔcomK PcomK-luc (BD4893), Δhag ΔcomK PcomK-luc (BD7261), ΔmotB ΔcomK PcomK-luc (BD7488), Δhag ΔdegS ΔcomK PcomK-luc (BD7491), ΔmotB ΔdegS ΔcomK PcomK-luc (BD7490), Δhag degUD56NΔ comK PcomK-luc (BD7475) and ΔmotB degUD56N ΔcomK PcomK-luc (BD7492). The vertical arrows point to T0.