e., 15 days after inoculation (Figure 3A and B). Additionally,

a co-mingling chicken experiment using the double knockout mutant and wild-type strain was performed in order to determine the role of the PSMR genes in horizontal transmission in birds. In the comingling group with seeder birds inoculated with the double knockout mutant, 67% of the naive chickens were positive for DKO01Q at 3 days after initiation of co-mingling, and all the SGC-CBP30 molecular weight birds became positive at 6 and 9 days after initiation of co-mingling (Figure 3C). For the comingling group with seeder birds inoculated with the wild-type strain, 90% of the naive birds were colonized with NCTC 11168 at 3 days after initiation of comingling, and all colonized at 6 and 9 days after initiation of comingling (Figure 3C). The colonization levels in the non-inoculated, but comingled birds also showed no significant differences between the two groups (Figure 3D). Together, the chicken experiments indicated that the two PSMR efflux click here systems, individually or in combination, are dispensable for C. jejuni colonization and horizontal spread in the chicken host. Figure 3 Effect

of the PSMR gene mutations on Campylobacter colonization and transmission in chickens. (A) Colonization levels of single-mutant strains KO39Q and KO73Q in comparison with the wild-type strain NCTC11168. (B) Colonization levels of double mutant DKO01Q in comparison with the wild-type strain check details NCTC11168. In (A) and (B), cecal contents were collected from chickens necropsied on DAI 5, 10, and 15. Each symbol represents data from a single bird and bars indicate the mean ± SD for each

group. Dashed lines indicate the detection limit of the direct plating method. (C) and (D): Co-mingling experiment demonstrating the transmission Methane monooxygenase of C. jejuni from seeder birds (n = 3 in each group) to naive (non-inoculated) birds. (C) The percentage of naive birds (n = 10 for the wild type group and n = 9 for DKO01Q group) positive for C. jejuni after comingling with seeder birds inoculated with NCTC11168 and DKO01Q, respectively. (D) Cecal colonization levels of the wild-type strain and DKO01Q strains in naive birds co-mingled with the seeder birds. The birds were euthanized at 9 and 12 days after initiation of co-mingling. Each symbol represents the colonization level of a single bird and the horizontal bars indicate the mean and standard error for each group. Characterization of the cj0423-cj0425 operon cj0423-cj0425 encode a putative integral membrane protein, a putative acidic periplasmic protein and a putative periplasmic protein, respectively. Microarray showed that this operon was up-regulated under treatment with an inhibitory dose of Ery (Additional file 1: Table S1). Additionally, qRT-PCR results demonstrated that cj0425 was up-regulated under both inhibitory and sub-inhibitory Ery treatments in NCTC 11168 (Table 4).