Figure 1

The B. cereus yvfTU chromosomal region. (A) Map of the B. cereus ATCC 14579 yvfTU chromosomal region. Grey arrows represent ORFs. The position of the kanamycin resistance gene integrated in the chromosome of the mutant to disrupt yvfTU is indicated. Small arrows represent promoters or putative promoters. Function or putative function of gene products: BC5355, ABC transporter ATP-binding protein; BC5354, ABC transporter permease protein; yvfT, two-component sensor kinase; yvfU, two-component response regulator; nprB, metalloprotease; plcR, transcriptional activator; papR, PlcR activating peptide; Black box: PlcR recognition site. Lines annotated by numbers in brackets correspond to RT-PCR amplicons (see text and Fig. 2). In the yvfT promoter region, putative -10 and -35 sigma A boxes (underlined), initiation of transcription (bold underlined) and RBS (bold italic) are indicated In the yvfU 3'-region, one cytosine (bold underlined) which leads to a stop codon (italic underlined) was indicated in the ATCC 14579 genome sequence, but was lacking in our sequence data which gives a different stop codon (bold). The predicted stem-loop at the end of yvfU is represented. (B) Synteny of the yvfTU chromosomal region among the B. cereus group. Taxonomic group determined as previously described [24]. Studied strains were: Group III, B. cereus ATCC 10987; B. cereus ZK (E33L); B. thuringiensis konkukian; B. anthracis Sterne; B. anthracis Ames; B. anthracis Ames 0581; B. anthracis Ames ancestor; B. cereus W, B. thuringiensis Al Hakam. Group IV, B. cereus ATCC 14579; B. thuringiensis israelensis ATCC 35646. Group VI, B. weihenstephanensis KBAB4. Group VII, B. cereus NVH 391/98, B. cereus NVH 883/00. ^a: truncated in B. anthracis strains.