Previously, Bigas et al. (2005) demonstrated failure of transformation in the absence of cAMP. In this study, we tested the effect at any concentration of cAMP in the transformation assay (Fig. 1). The results showed no significant difference at any concentration of cAMP in

the transformation assay. To Selleckchem Obeticholic Acid obtain the ΔompP2 mutant, the pZB4 plasmid was used as donor DNA, introduced by natural transformation into strain SC096. Colony PCR was used to check the gentamicin-resistant transformants (Fig. 2). As expected, the primers P1 and P4 amplified a 2.045-kb fragment from the wild-type strain. In the ΔompP2 mutant, this fragment was decreased to 1.753 kb by replacement of the ompP2 sequence with the GmR cassette. Sequencing of PCR products further confirmed replacement of the ompP2 sequence by the GmR cassette in the ΔompP2 mutant. According to the method of Saeed-Kothe et al. (2004), transformation of Haemophilus influenzae with a complementation construct directs integration

of a gene of interest into the chromosome. In this study, Cell Cycle inhibitor a single-copy, chromosome-based complementation plasmid of pZB5 was constructed and transformed into the ΔompP2 mutant. Many kanamycin-resistant transformants were obtained and checked for specified homologous recombination by PCR with primers P13 and P16 (Fig. 2). As predicted, the primers amplified a 2.32-kb fragment containing the ompP2 gene and the KanR cassette in the complemented strain, whereas no fragment was observed in the ΔompP2 mutant. Sequencing further confirmed that

the complete OmpP2 ORF was integrated into the non-coding region of the hepII gene, 76 bp downstream of the TAA stop codon. To further describe the ΔompP2 mutant, the OMP profiles showed that the expression of a protein of approximately 37 kDa was absent in the ΔompP2 mutant compared with the wild-type strain (Fig. 2). The ORF for OmpP2 in the wild-type strain is 1.092 kb (GenBank accession no. HQ709244) and the cleavage of the signal sequence (the first 20 N-terminal residues) results in a mature OmpP2 protein with a predicted molecular mass of 37.2 kDa, which closely approximates Casein kinase 1 the size of the protein absent in the ΔompP2 mutant determined by SDS-PAGE of the OMP preparation. The expression of OmpP2 was restored in the complemented strain. Thus, the result further confirmed that the ompP2 gene was deleted from the genome of strain SC096. In addition, there appeared to be two bands of approximately 25 kDa present in the ΔompP2 mutant strain, suggesting further alterations in the protein composition of the outer membrane as a possible result of changes in protein expression or instability of other outer membrane proteins. In Gram-negative bacteria, porins form transport channels that are involved in the uptake of essential nutrients required for bacterial growth (Achouak et al., 2001). In this study, deletion of the ompP2 gene in H.