Figure 5.

Transcriptional analysis of RNA recovered from wild type and allelic exchange mutant E. chaffeensis organisms assessed by RT-PCR. (A) RT-PCR products from wild type (W) and Ech_0230 mutant (M) organisms were resolved (L, 1 kb plus molecular weight DNA markers resolved; +, genomic DNA from wild type E. chaffeensis was used as the template; -, negative control reaction with no template added). (B) As in panel A, except that the analysis was performed using RNA recovered from Ech_0379 disruption (M) and restoration (R) mutant organisms. Positive controls for this experiments included genomic DNAs as the templates from W, M and R. (0.38 kb amplicons are expected for DNA templates in PCRs of W and R and 1.6 kb product is expected for M DNA as the template.) (C) Mutations to inactivate and restore the gene activity in Ech_0379 did not alter the gene expression from its neighboring genes. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR assays were performed at 30, 35 and 40 PCR cycles for Ech_0378, Ech_0379 and Ech_0380 for wild type, gene inactivation and gene rescue mutant organisms and the data for 35 cycles were presented. W, M and R had similar quantities of amplicons for Ech_0378 and Ech_0380; Ech_0379 amplicons were also similar for W and R, while absent for M. (Full-length gels and blots were included in the Supplementary Figure file, as parts of the Figure had cropped images).