FIG 1.

Growth and bgp expression in strains B31 5A4 (WT), bgpmut, and bgpcomp. (A) Reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) with bgp-pta operon primers produced a 1.9-kb product in WT and bgpcomp strains. No transcript was detected in the bgpmut strain. RT-PCR using pta primers produced a 1-kb transcript, indicating that transcription of the downstream gene was not affected by the bgp mutagenesis. A control without reverse transcriptase indicates that all RNA samples were free from DNA contamination. (B) Growth rates of all B. burgdorferi strains were comparable. (C) Western blot analysis using anti-Bgp antibodies showed the absence of Bgp expression in the mutant strain. Anti-Pta antibodies showed that this protein is expressed uniformly, albeit at low levels, in all strains. Flagellin protein detected by anti-FlaB antibodies was included as a loading control.