YmdB could affect this change in rpoS transcript levels by either acting as an as yet unknown transcription factor HIF inhibitor or by acting as an effector protein for the factor(s) involved in rpoS transcription. We found that YmdB overexpression had no effect on rpoS promoter activity (data not shown), thereby

excluding any role as a transcription factor. A linear relationship between rpoS transcript levels and RpoS protein levels was then investigated following YmdB induction, and similar increases (~2.5-fold) in the induced β-galactosidase activity of the rpoS’-‘lacZ protein fusion and the RpoS protein level were observed (Figures 4A,B). Moreover, the steady-state level of rpoS transcript (Figure 4C) was oppositely regulated in the absence of chromosomal ymdB. Additionally, the level of rpoS transcript following YmdB overexpression was lower than that in the RNase III mutant strain. These data suggest that YmdB-mediated regulation of RNase III activity alone cannot

fully regulate the processing of the 5′ UTR of rpoS mRNA. Because RpoS can negatively regulate biofilm formation by itself (Figure 3B) and is also required for complete YmdB function (Figure 3B), it is a matter of debate whether YmdB can modulate RpoS activity. When the RpoS protein was overexpressed in a wild-type and in an ymdB knockout strain, RpoS-mediated inhibition of biofilm ZD1839 research buy formation selleck chemicals llc was decreased from 70% to 43% (Figure 3B). This, when taken together with the other data, suggests that the regulation of RpoS function during biofilm formation is dependent upon YmdB. Moreover, RpoS overexpression phenotype on biofilm inhibition was not dependent upon the presence of RNase III activity (Additional file 1: Figure S3). Thus, YmdB is a novel post-transcriptional regulator of RpoS levels that acts independently of RNase III. Figure 4 Regulation of RpoS levels and activity by YmdB. (A) Effect of

YmdB on in vivo expression levels of RpoS. KS004 [SG30013 (λRpoS750::LacZ] [31] strains containing either pCA24N (−gfp) or ASKA-ymdB (−) were grown to OD600 = 0.2, induced by IPTG (0.1 mM final), and further grown to OD600 = 1.0. Aliquots were then assayed for β-galactosidase activity. Data represent the mean values from n = 3 experiments (p = 0.05). (B) Expression level of RpoS. Total lysates prepared from the cell described in (A) and from Keio-∆rpoS cells were immunoblotted antibodies against RpoS and S1. The Keio-∆rpoS strain is included to show the specificity of the antibody. The relative levels of RpoS normalized against S1 protein are shown. ND, not determined. (C) Determination of steady-state levels of rpoS transcript induced by YmdB.