After the membrane was blocked for 20 min in the blocking buffer (1% casein, 0.1 M maleic acid, 0.1 M NaCl, pH 7.5), the membrane was incubated with 0.1% streptoavidin-horseradish peroxidase conjugate (HRP; Sigma) in the blocking buffer for 20 min with gentle shaking. The membrane was washed four times with the washing buffer (0.3% Tween 20, 0.1 M maleic acid, 0.1 M NaCl, pH 7.5) for 5 min, followed by equilibration with the maleic acid buffer (0.1 M SD-208 research buy maleic acid, 0.1 M

NaCl) for 5 min with gentle shaking. The membrane was put on a clean sheet of plastic wrap and the light emitted by the DNA fragments produced on incubation in Chemi-Lumi One (Nacalai tesque, Kyoto, Japan) was recorded with LAS-4000 EPUVmini (Fuji Film, Tokyo, Japan). The molecular mass of the recombinant PyrR was determined by HPLC with

a size-exclusion chromatograph (Shodex Protein KW-803). A calibration curve was obtained based on the elution pattern of standard proteins as described previously (Yokochi et al., 2009). The subunit molecular mass was determined by SDS-PAGE as described previously (Yokochi et al., 2009). The primary sequence of the mll6786 gene product was homologous to several repressor proteins. The DMS12804 protein in Bordetella petrii showed the highest identity, 39%; the IP32953 protein in Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, 37%; and the Ymp protein in Pseudomonas mendocina, 37%. On the basis of this, mll6786 might encode a repressor protein and the gene product was designated as PyrR. The secondary structure of the PyrR protein was predicted with

the jpred 3 server (http://www.compbio.dundee.ac.uk/www-jpred/). The PyrR http://www.selleckchem.com/products/Trichostatin-A.html protein had an HTH motif: the Interleukin-2 receptor amino acid residues from V14 to S28 formed the first α-helix; those from E39 to L46, the second α-helix; and those from P51 to A62, the third α-helix. The α-helices were followed by two β-sheets (I66-V69 and G73-P77). The arrangement of the secondary structures in the PyrR protein was quite similar to that in a DNA-binding protein (YP_298823.1, PDB entry 3IHU) from Ralstonia eutropha JMP 134. A strain of M. loti in which the mll6786 gene was inactivated by insertion of a tetracycline resistance gene, was constructed and isolated as described in Materials and methods. PCR of the chromosome of the disruptant strain did not give a DNA band corresponding to the size of mll6786. Instead, it produced a DNA band corresponding to the size of the mll6786::Tc gene (Fig. 2a). Thus, an mll6786-disruptant strain was successfully prepared. The mll6786-disruptant strain grew as well as the wild-type strain in TY medium, but other phenotypic characteristics were not examined. If PyrR is a transcriptional repressor like the VanR subgroup proteins, the regulated enzyme activities in the mll6786-disruptant cells would be expected to increase following disruption of the pyrR gene. The enzyme activities in crude extracts of the wild-type and mll6786-disruptant M.