FIG. 3.

RNA blot analysis of puc deletion strains. (A) Structures of the five puc deletion plasmids tested. The puc genes are indicated by boxes, and inverted repeats are shown as loops with stems. Deleted sequences are shown as dotted lines. The fragments used as probes for RNA blot analysis in panels B (b) and C (c) are indicated above the schematic of pBACDE. RNA was prepared from strain ΔLHII containing plasmids pRK415 (vector control lacking puc genes) (lane 1), pBACDE (lane 2), pΔCDE (lane 3), pΔC (lane 4), pΔD (lane 5), and pΔE (lane 6). The approximate positions of RNA molecular size standards are shown to the left of the blots. In panel C, the 2.4-kb puc transcript (∗) was identified by stripping of the blot in panel B and hybridization with probe c (data not shown). The origin of the higher-molecular-weight molecule in lane 2 is not known.