putida PaW85 chromosome with primers ColSSal and ColSHincII. The PCR fragment was cut with SalI and HincII and cloned into SalI-SmaI-opened pBRlacItac. The lacI q -P tac -colS cassette was excised from the plasmid pBRlacItac/colS with BamHI and Acc65I, and ligated into the corresponding sites of the plasmid pUC18Not to obtain pUCNot/lacItaccolS. Finally, the colS expression CFTRinh-172 in vivo cassette was subcloned as a NotI fragment into the miniTn7 delivery plasmid pBK-miniTn7-ΩSm. For the construction ColSH35A, ColSE38Q, ColSD57N,

ColSH95A, ColSE96Q, ColSH105A, ColSE126Q, ColSE129Q and ColSE126Q/E129Q expression cassettes, the site-directed mutagenesis of wild-type colS was performed using two sequential PCRs and the plasmid pUCNot/lacItaccolS as a template. In the first PCR, one primer carried the substitution mutation and the other was either Smut1 or Smut2 (see Additional file 3). The product of the first PCR served as a reverse primer for Smut1 or Smut2 in the second PCR. The product of the second PCR was treated with DpnI, Mva1269I and Bpu1102I,

and ligated into the Mva1269I-Bpu1102I-opened pUCNot/lacItaccolS. After verification of designed mutations by sequencing, the expression cassettes with the Apoptosis antagonist mutated colS gene were subcloned into the NotI site in plasmid pBK-miniTn7-ΩSm. The pBK-miniTn7-ΩSm derivatives, Selleck BAY 63-2521 bearing either wild-type or mutant colS expression cassette, were introduced into P. putida colS-deficient strain by co-electroporation together with the helper plasmid pUXBF13. Presence of the expression cassette in the attTn7 site of the colS-deficient strain was verified by PCR. For construction of P. putida derivatives devoid of PP0268, PP0900, PP1636 or PP5152, the loci were disrupted with the streptomycin resistance gene. PP0268, PP0900, PP1636 or PP5152 were amplified with primer pairs oprE3Bam + oprE3Xho,

900Kpn + colRATGXho, PP1635lopp + PP1636Kpn and 5152lopp + 5153lopp, respectively. PP0268-containing PCR fragment was treated with BamHI (blunt-ended with Klenow DNA polymerase) and XhoI and cloned into pBluescript KS. The central 700-bp region of PP0268 in pKS/268 was excised with HincII and Eco47III and replaced with the Smr gene cut from pUTmini-Tn5Sm/Sp Dichloromethane dehalogenase with VspI. The obtained 268::Sm sequence was subcloned as an EcoRI-Acc65I fragment into pGP704L. PP0900-containing PCR fragment was treated with Eco147I and Acc65I and cloned into the SmaI-Acc65I-opened pBluescript KS. Next, the central 87-bp EheI-Eco130I sequence in pKS/900 was replaced with the Smr gene and the resulting 900::Sm sequence was subcloned into pGP704L using SacI and Acc65I. The PP1636-containing PCR fragment was cloned into pBluescript KS as a HindIII-Acc65I fragment. The central 143-bp Mva1269I-ClaI region of PP1636 in pKS/1636 was replaced with the Smr gene and the 1636::Sm sequence was inserted into pGP704L using SacI and Acc65I.