Transcriptome analysis of Escherichia coli O157:H7 EDL933 during anaerobic growth using microarrays

The transcriptome of Escherichia coli K-12 has been widely studied over a variety of conditions for the past decade while such studies involving E. coli O157:H7, its pathogenic cousin, are just now being conducted. To better understand the impact of an anaerobic environment on E. coli O157:H7, global transcript levels of strain EDL933 cells grown aerobically were compared to cells grown anaerobically using microarrays. Eight independent RNA samples from aerobic cultures were paired with eight independent RNA samples from anaerobic cultures for hybridization to eight two-color microarrays. For four arrays, the control RNA sample was labeled with Cy3 dye and the experimental RNA sample was labeled with Cy5 dye, the dyes were reversed for the other six arrays to overcome dye bias.