Standard PCR amplification experiments were performed with primers listed in Table  3. In order to evaluate the possible transposition capacity of the composite transposon

containing the cereulide gene cluster of MC118, a composite transposon Tnces::Km was constructed by the replacement of the cereulide gene cluster with the KmR marker as follows. A 1.3 kb fragment containing the KmR gene Selleckchem GF120918 was amplified with the primer pair KmF_XbaI/KmR_BamHI. Two 853 bp ISces elements (see below) containing a transposase gene, flanked by the left- and right IR, were amplified with the primer pairs ISF_ SacI/ ISR_XbaI and ISF_ HindIII/ ISR_BamHI. Products were digested with the appropriate enzymes, and mixed in a four-way ligation with BamHI-XbaI-cleaved KmR fragment, and SacI-HindIII-cleaved pUC18 vector, pTnKm was created to carry

Tnces::km with two copies of ISces element in opposite orientations flanking the KmR marker. The electroporation of recombinant plasmid into E. coli DH5a and JM109 was as described by Sambrook and coll. [54]. Plasmid profiling and hybridization Plasmid profiling of the emetic isolates was performed according to Andrup et al. [55]. Genomic MAPK inhibitor DNA from E. coli strains HB101, JM109 (pTnKm), JM109 (R388, pTnKm) and transconjugants were digested with NdeI and run in a 0.8% agarose gel electrophoresis before the separated DNA fragments were transferred from agarose gels to a positively charged nylon membrane (Boehringer Mannheim, Germany). DIG-labeled probes were designed by using the “”PCR

DIG Probe Synthesis Kit”" from Roche. Probe Pces, consisting of an internal fragment of cesB using EmF and EmR primers, was used for the location of cereulide gene cluster. Probes 1, 2, and 3, which consisted of an internal fragment of bla pUC18 using APF1 and APR1 primers, an internal fragment of IS using ISF3 and ISR3 primers, and an internal fragment of km using kmF3 and KmR3 primers, were used for transposition survey. After transfer and fixation of the DNA on the membrane, the hybridization was performed with the “”DIG High Prime DNA Labeling and Detection Starter Kit I”" (Roche Diagnostic, Mannheim, Germany), according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Transposition experiments The transposition of the pTnKm was examined using a mating-out SB-3CT experiment, as previously described [32, 33]. For this purpose, E. coli JM109 harboring pTnKm and plasmid R388 (TpR) was used as the donor to mate with E. coli HB101 (SmR) on a membrane Selleckchem LY3039478 filter. The transposition frequency was expressed as the number of KmRSmR transconjugants per SmR recipients (T/R) and the plasmids in the transconjugants were further characterized by PCR and restriction digestion. Sequence analysis The complete genome sequence of AH187 and the gapped genome sequences of the other six emetic strains were obtained from NCBI (Table  1). A fragmented all-against-all comparison analysis was performed using Gegenees (version 1.1.