Fig. 5. The G-repeat length impacts RepG-mediated tlpB-hp0102 co-regulation and in turn smooth LPS production.
a (Left panel) RT-qPCR of relative tlpB and hp0102 mRNA levels of different tlpB leader mutants (ΔG, 6–16G) in the H. pylori 26695 wild-type background. The mRNA level of each gene in the tlpB 6G-leader mutant was used as reference and set to 1. (Right panel) Relative fold changes of tlpB and hp0102 mRNA levels upon repG deletion in H. pylori 26695 tlpB leader mutants when compared to the respective wild-type backgrounds. The fold changes are shown as mean of three biological replicates with corresponding error bars (s.d.). ***—highly significant, p-value < 0.001; **—very significant, p-value < 0.01; *—significant, p-value < 0.05; n.s.—not significant; Student’s t-test, two-tailed. b The LPS patterns and Lewis x antigen levels of tlpB leader mutants in H. pylori 26695 wild-type and ∆repG mutant backgrounds were analyzed by silver staining and western blot analysis with anti-Lewis x antigen antibody, respectively. Expression of the chemotaxis receptors was analyzed by an anti-TlpA22 antiserum. Note that tlpB leader mutants express FLAG-tagged TlpB21. A representative silver-stained PAA-gel and western blot are shown (out of three independent experiments). Source data underlying (a, b) are provided as a Source data file.