ABSTRACT: Escherichia coli strain MG1655 was grown in parallel chemostat cultures in GGM. In one chemostat the culture was fed adequate Zn; in the other, measures were taken to eliminate Zn from the chemostat vessel and culture medium. Culture volume (120 ml), temperature (37 oC) and stirring speed (437 rpm) were maintained. Steady state values for pH and OD600 were 6.9 and 0.6, respectively. After 50 hours, samples from the adequate Zn and Zn-limited chemostats were harvested into RNAprotect and total RNA was purified using Qiagenâ??s RNeasy Mini kit (using the supplierâ??s protocol) prior to use in microarray analysis. Biological experiments (i.e. a comparison of adequate versus low Zn in chemostat culture) were carried out three times, and a dye swap performed for each experiment, providing two technical repeats for each of the three biological repeats. Cells were grown in glycerol-glycerophosphate medium (GGM). Final concentrations in GGM are: MES (40.0 mM), NH4Cl (18.7 mM), KCl (13.4 mM),beta-glycerophosphate (7.64 mM), glycerol (5.00 mM), K2SO4 (4.99 mM), MgCl2 (1.00 mM), EDTA (134 microM), CaCl2.2H2O (68.0 microM), FeCl3.6H2O (18.5 microM), ZnO (6.14 microM), H3BO3 (1.62 microM), CuCl2.2H2O (587 nM), CoNO3.6H2O (344 nM), and (NH4)6Mo7O24.4H2O (80.9 nM) in MilliQ water (Millipore). Bulk elements (MES, NH4Cl, KCl, K2SO4 and glycerol in MilliQ water at pH 7.4 (batch growth) or 7.6 (continuous culture)) were passed through a column containing Chelex-100 ion exchange resin (Bio-Rad) to remove contaminating cations. Trace elements (with or without Zn as necessary) and a CaCl2 solution were then added to give the final concentrations shown above prior to autoclaving. After autoclaving, MgCl2 and beta-glycerophosphate were added at the final concentrations shown above. All chemicals were of AnalaR grade of purity or higher. Chelex-100 was packed into a Bio-Rad Glass Econo-column (approximately 120 mm Ã? 25 mm) that had previously been soaked in 3.5% nitric acid for 5 d. E. coli strain MG1655 was grown in parallel custom-built chemostats made entirely of non-metal parts. One chemostat was fed medium that contained â??adequateâ?? Zn (that normally found in GGM), whilst the other contained no added Zn and had been actively depleted of Zn by use of the special precautions listed here. Glass growth vessels and flow-back traps were soaked extensively (approximately two months) in 10% nitric acid before being rinsed thoroughly in MilliQ water. Vent filters (Vent Acro 50 from VWR) were connected to the vessel using PTFE tubing. Metal-free pipette tips were used (MAXYMum Recovery Filter Tips from Axygen). Culture volume was maintained at 120 ml using an overflow weir in the chemostat vessel. The dilution rate (and hence the specific growth rate) was 0.1 h-1. The vessel was inoculated using one of the side-arms. Flasks were placed on KMO 2 Basic IKA-Werke stirrers (arbitrary setting: 400). Stirring speed was calibrated (437 rpm) and matched between vessels using a handheld laser tachometer (Compact Instruments Ltd). Temperature was kept constant at 37°C. Twice daily, a 2-ml sample was taken and used to test the pH (which stayed constant at pH 6.9), OD600 (0.6 at steady state), glycerol limitation, and contamination on nutrient agar plates. The â??Zn-freeâ?? chemostat was inoculated with cells that had been sub-cultured in Zn-free medium to deplete internal stores of Zn. A 0.25 ml aliquot of a saturated culture of strain MG1655 grown in LB was centrifuged and the pellet used to inoculate 5 ml of GGM that was incubated overnight at 37°C with shaking. A 2.4 ml (i.e. 2% of chemostat volume) aliquot of this was then used to inoculate the chemostat. The â??adequate Znâ?? chemostat was inoculated with cells treated in essentially the same way but grown in GGM containing an â??adequateâ?? level of Zn. The two cultures (+/- Zn) used to inoculate the chemostats had OD600 readings within 2.5% of each other. Chemostats were grown for 50 h to allow five culture volumes to pass through the vessel and allow an apparent (pseudo-)steady state to be reached. At this point, 10 ml samples were removed from the chemostats and total RNA was stabilised using RNAprotect (Qiagen). Total RNA was purified using Qiagenâ??s RNeasy mini kit. Equal quantities of RNA from adequate Zn and Zn-limited chemostats were labeld by using nucleotide analogues of dCTP containing either Cy3 or Cy5 fluorescent dyes (Perkin Elmer). For each microarray slide, one sample was labeld with Cy3-dCTP, while the other sample was labeld with Cy5-dCTP. RNA (15-20 micrograms) was annealed to 9 micrograms pd(N)6 random hexamers (Amersham Biosciences) by heating at 65°C for 10 min, followed by 10 min at 22°C. This was supplemented with 4 microlitres of 5Ã? First-strand buffer (Invitrogen), 2 microlitres dNTP mixture (5 mM each dATP, dTTP, dGTP and 2 mM dCTP), 2 microlitres 0.1 M DTT, 2 microlitres 1 mM Cy3 or Cy5 (Perkin Elmer) and 1 microlitre Superscript II reverse transcriptase (200 U) (Invitrogen). This was incubated at 42°C for 2 hours. The reaction was terminated by the addition of NaOH (5 microlitres of 1M) and HCl (5 microlitres of 1M) before the addition of TE buffer (200 microlitres). Labelled cDNA was purified using a Qiaquick PCR purification kit (Qiagen). The Cy3-dCTP-labeld sample was mixed with the Cy5-dCTP-labeld sample and re-suspended in 120 microlitres salt-based hybridisation buffer (supplied with the microarray slides). This was heated at 95°C for 3 min then cooled on ice for 3 min. The mixture was pipetted onto a microarray slide, sealed with a GeneFrame and coverslip in a hybridization chamber and incubated for 18 h at 42 °C. Following hybridization, microarray slides (minus GeneFrame and coverslip) were washed in a series of pre-warmed (37 °C) SSC buffers for 5 min each at 37°C: 1Ã? SSC/0.1 % SDS, 1Ã? SSC, 0.2Ã? SSC and 0.01Ã? SSC. Microarray slides were dried by centrifugation at 500 Ã? g for 2 min before scanning. Slides were scanned on an Affymetrix 428 scanner. The average signal intensity and local background correction were obtained using a commercially available software package from Biodiscovery, Inc (Imagene, version 4.0 and GeneSight, version 3.5). Spots automatically flagged as bad, negative or poor in the Imagene software were removed before the statistical analysis was carried out in GeneSight. The mean values from each channel were log2 transformed and normalised using the Lowess method to remove intensity-dependent effects in the log2(ratios) values. The Cy3/Cy5 or Cy5/Cy3 (test/reference) fluorescent ratios were calculated from the normalized values. Biological experiments (i.e. a comparison of adequate versus low Zn in chemostat culture) were carried out three times, and a dye swap performed for each experiment, providing two technical repeats for each of the three biological repeats. Data from the independent experiments were combined. Data from the independent experiments were combined. Genes that were differentially expressed â?¥ twofold and displayed and P value of < 0.05 (as determined by a t-test) were defined as being statistically significantly differentially transcribed.
