MT2009 was constructed by P1 transduction of phoA∷Kmr from JW0374 to MT2005. After eliminating the antibiotic resistance gene of MT2009, the genes yjbB∷Cmr from MT1011 and pstSCAB-phoU∷Kmr from BW17335 and the genes yjbB∷Cmr from MT1011 and glpT∷Kmr from JW2234 were transferred into MT2009 by P1 transduction, with the resulting mutants Selleckchem RG7204 designated MT2013 and MT2014, respectively. After eliminating the antibiotic

resistance genes of MT2014, pstSCAB-phoU∷Kmr from BW17335 was transferred into MT2014 by P1 transduction, with the resulting mutant designated MT2016. Disruption of pitA, pitB, phnC, pstSCABphoU, and yjbB was confirmed by PCR using the primer pairs pitA1/pitA2, pitB1/pitB2, phnC1/phnC2, pstX1/pstX2, and yjbB1/yjbB2,

respectively. Strains JW0374 (ΔphoA∷Kmr) and JW2234 (ΔglpT∷Kmr) were obtained from the National Institute of Genetics of Japan. All the strains and plasmids used in this study are listed in Table 1. The accumulation of polyP during amino acid starvation was tested as described BAY 80-6946 manufacturer below (Kuroda et al., 1997). Escherichia coli MG1655 carrying pMWyjbB was grown to the mid-log phase on a 2 × YT-rich medium (1.6% peptone, 1.0% yeast extract, and 0.5% NaCl) (Sambrook & Russell, 2001) with shaking at 37 °C. The cells were collected by centrifugation, washed once with a morpholinopropane sulfonate (MOPS)-minimal medium [22.2 mM glucose, 40 mM

potassium morpholinopropane sulfonate (pH 7.2), 50 mM NaCl, 9.52 mM NH4Cl, 4 mM Tricine, 2 mM K2HPO4, 0.52 mM MgCl2, 0.28 mM K2SO4, 0.01 mM FeSO4, 0.0005 mM CaCl2, and trace metals] (Neidhardt et al., 1974), and resuspended in the same medium. The accumulation of polyP during the cessation of nucleic acid synthesis was tested by adding rifampicin (100 μg mL−1) to mid-log-phase cells (Kuroda & Ohtake, 2000; Kuroda, 2006). Intracellular polyP was extracted using the silica glass method and determined using a two-enzyme assay (Ault-Riche et al., 1998). An E. coli pellet was dissolved in 4 M guanidine isothiocyanate (GITC), and cells were lysed by heat (90 °C), SDS, and sonication. After the addition of ethanol, polyP was precipitated with Glassmilk (MP-Biomedicals, Santa these Ana, CA) and was washed with New Wash (MP-Biomedicals). Following DNase and RNase treatment, polyP was readsorbed to the Glassmilk in the presence of GITC and ethanol and was extracted with water. The polyP concentration was measured as an amount of ATP generated by the reaction with PPK and ADP, which is equivalent to the number of Pi residues of polyP. ATP was measured using the ATP Bioluminescence assay kit (Roche, Mannheim, Germany). Alkaline phosphatase activity was measured using the method reported by Freimuth et al. (1990).