FIG 2.

Gene organization of pilE and upstream silent copies in Mc8013. The five gray arrows indicate pilin silent copies 1 to 5. The black arrow represents the expressed pilE gene in Mc8013. The silent copies and pilE share significant DNA homology and their level of discrepancy is indicated by black peaks when aligned (generated by DNAstar SeqMan Pro). Cys1 and Cys2 represent the two conserved cysteine amino acids in the pilE gene. The binding sites of the 454 primers are represented by small black arrows, with the 454-P₁ primer binding to the conserved region of pilE and the 454-P₂ primer binding to the region 33 bp after the stop codon of pilE.