Transformants (KMS69, KMS70, and KMS71) were cultured in the presence of tetracycline (20 ng ml-1) until early-log phase where the expression of each gfp-wag31 allele was induced with acetamide (0.1%) for 3 hr before cells were observed under a fluorescence microscope, and the polar GFP-Wag31 signal

was measured by using ImageJ software. Top, GFP AR-13324 signal from fluorescence microscopy; Middle, DIC image of the cells shown at the top panel; Bottom, enlarged overlap image of GFP signal and DIC. Average GFP intensity from cells expressing gfp-wag31T73A Mtb or gfp- wag31T73E Mtb relative to those of cells expressing wild-type gfp-wag31 is shown at the bottom. p-values for the difference BMS202 supplier in GFP signals (one-tailed, unpaired t-tests): wild-type Wag31Mtb vs. Wag31T73EMtb = 1.2 × 10-14, significant, and wild-type Wag31Mtb vs. Wag31T73AMtb = 1.2 × 10-36, significant (significant to p < 0.05). bar, 5 μm. B. Western blot analysis to examine the total

Wag31 levels (GFP-Wag31 from Pacet and non-tagged Wag31 from Ptet) relative to those of SigAMsm. Total protein was purified from each strain at the same time cells were examine for fluorescence, and 20 μg of total protein was used for Western blot analysis with the anti-Wag31 mAb, stripped of the antibody, and subsequently for another Western blot with a monoclonal antibody against the Sig70 of E. coli RNA polymerase (Abcam). The ratio of total Wag31/SigA signal intensity from cells expressing

wild-type gfp-wag31 was set as 1. Data shown are from a representative experiment done in duplicate. To further confirm the effect of the Wag31 phosphorylation on its polar localization, we examined the localization of wild-type Wag31Mtb in the presence or absence of pknA Mtb – or pknB Mtb -overexpression. We previously showed that Wag31 was weakly phosphorylated by PknAMtb, which was significantly enhanced by the selleck screening library addition of PknBMtb in vitro [3]. Consistent with this, pknA-overexpression only slightly increased the polar localization of Wag31 and polar peptidoglycan biosynthesis (Additional file 3 (Fig. A2)). However, overexpression of pknB Mtb , which dramatically Tau-protein kinase increased the phosphorylation of GFP-Wag31 (Figure 4 bottom panel), elevated the polar localization of Wag31 (two-fold, upper panel) and nascent peptidoglycan biosynthesis (1.8-fold, middle panel) compared to cells without pknB Mtb -overexpression. These data further support that the phosphorylation of Wag31 enhances its polar localization, which in turn heightens polar peptidoglycan biosynthesis. Figure 4 Localization of Wag31 and nascent peptidoglycan biosynthesis in the presence or absence of pknB Mtb -overexpression. Early-log phase cells of M. smegmatis (KMS4) containing pCK314 were divided into two flasks, and pknB Mtb was expressed in one of the flasks for 2 hr by adding 0.1% of acetamide.