5) supplemented with 0.5 ml of 0.25 g/ml TMAO solution. The resulting clear bands on the blue background indicate the presence of active TMAO reductase in the gel. Growth assessment of strains in M9-TMAO media The overnight cultures of different tat genes deletion mutants and complement strains (listed in Table 1) and the wild type strain N16961 were diluted 1:100 and incubated in fresh LB MK-2206 solubility dmso to OD600 more than 0.8. Then the culture of each was adjusted with LB to OD600 of 0.8. Then they were then diluted 1:100, and 50 μl of each culture was transferred into M9-TMAO media and subsequently cultured statically at 37°C in the anaerobic jar (Oxoid). The vacuum extractor was used to extract the air in the anaerobic

jar to lower atmospheric pressure (-10 millimeters of mercury), and then H2 and CO2 were inflated to normal atmospheric pressure. The culture was grown for 24 h, and then the OD600 of each culture was determined. Pritelivir Motility assay Motility of N16961 and N169-dtatABC cells was tested on 0.3% minimal motility agar containing 1% peptone and 0.5% NaCl (wt/v). Briefly, cell cultures grown in LB broth overnight at 37°C were diluted 1:1000. Cell cultures were then grown to OD600 0.2. Subsequently, each strain was inoculated

onto the surface of the motility U type tubes. Motility was examined after 12 h and 16 h of incubation at 37°C. The percentage of the length of growth diffusion in the agar of the mutant strain N169-dtatABC compared to the wild type strain was calculated. At least five independent motility assays were carried out for each strain and condition. Outer membrane integrity assay We detected the outer membrane

integrity Rebamipide according to the method of reference [26]. The wild type strain N16961 and the Tat mutant strain N169-dtatABC were cultured overnight and then diluted 1:100 into fresh LB and grown to OD600 0.4. Five milliliters of fresh LB was added into each tube, and SDS or Gentamicin (Get) was added to final concentrations of 0 to 2.5% and 0 to 500 μg/ml, respectively. Experiments were performed in triplicate for N16961 and Get. After SDS or Get addition, all tubes were grown at 37°C for 3 h at 250 rpm, after which the OD600 of each culture tube was measured. We defined the OD600 of the wild type strain cultured in LB without SDS and Get as 100%. The OD600 values of the other conditions were converted to the percentage of OD600 of the wild type strain cultured in LB without SDS and Get. To determine whether the outer membrane of the mutants was destroyed, the results are plotted as SDS or Get dilution on the X-axis and OD600 percentage on the Y-axis [26]. Flagellum extraction and quantification Bacterial cells were recovered from a 600 ml LB culture of N16961 and N169-dtatABC incubated overnight at 37°C and then centrifuged for 5 min at 10,000 g. The pellets were resuspended in PBS buffer and vortexed for 5 min, with a 30 s interval after 2.5 min.