Leon Rot, Germany). The nucleotide sequencing was done by Eurofins MWG Operon (Ebersberg, Germany). Generation of lscB UpN A and lscB Up A: The sequences of the 518-bp PAPE and the 470-bp lscB upstream region without the 48-bp coding sequence, respectively, were ligated to the N-terminus of the 1,748-bp lscA fragment using T4 DNA Ligase (Thermo Fisher Scientific Biosciences) after treating the DNA with restriction enzyme NheI. The ligation products were then treated with HindIII, analysed by agarose gel electrophoresis, and the bands corresponding to the fusion products (2,284 and 2,224 bp, respectively) were purified from the gel
using GeneJET Gel Extraction kit (Thermo Aloxistatin Fisher Scientific Biosciences). The purified fusion products were ligated into pBluescript-KS(II) using HindIII in such a way that the fusion products were under control of the vector-borne lac promoter (P lac ). Formation of levan on LB agar containing 5% sucrose indicated a functional lscA gene driven by the P lac . The PAPE and lscB upstream regions were sequenced to exclude any possibility of mutations. The fusion products were then cloned into the broad host-range vector pBBR1MCS using HindII in order to ligate them in opposite orientation to the P lac and then cloned into pBBR1MCS-3 using restriction enzymes PstI and XhoI to keep the same opposite orientation
with respect to P lac as in case of pBBR1MCS. The constructs were introduced MLN0128 mouse into mutant PG4180.M6 via electroporation. Generation of lscA Up B: A similar cloning strategy was used to generate the lscA Up B construct. The C-terminus of the 550-bp PCR-amplified lscA upstream region and the N-terminus of the 1,704-bp PCR-amplified Farnesyltransferase ORF lscB were ligated using a combination of restriction enzymes XbaI and NheI which generate compatible DNA ends. This ligation product was treated with endonucleases BamHI and HindIII and subsequently ligated into pBluescript-SK(−). The constructs were cloned into pBBR1MCS using restriction enzymes BamHI and HindII in order to ligate them in opposite
orientation to the P lac and then into pBBR1MCS-3 using restriction enzymes using XbaI and ApaI to keep the same opposite orientation with respect to P lac as in case of pBBR1MCS. Immunological and enzymatic detection of Lsc Total proteins from PG4180.M6 and PG4180.M6 transformants harboring the lsc fusion constructs were obtained as described previously [23]. For immunological detection of the Lsc enzyme, total proteins were separated by 10% SDS-PAGE and Western blot experiments were performed with total protein fractions using polyclonal antibodies raised against purified Lsc as reported earlier [10]. Zymographic detection of Lsc was done as described previously by separating the total proteins by 10% native-PAGE and incubating the gels in 5% sucrose solution [10]. Bacterial cells grown on mannitol-glutamate agar plates with 1.