Gene expression analysis of rel knockout and dcpA knockout strains of Mycobacterium smegmatis MC2 155

The experiment was carried out to study the effect of loss of (p)ppGpp or cyclic di-GMP on the gene expression pattern of Mycobacterium smegmatis MC2 155 strains. The cells were cultured in MB7H9 broth containing 0.2% glycerol and 0.05% Tween 80. The transcriptome analysis was performed using GeneSpring GX12 software. Fold changes were calculated with respect to the median expression of wild type replicates. The number of differentially expressed genes (p <0.1) in rel knockout were 417 whereas those in dcpA knockout were 149. Earlier studies had shown that rel knockout and dcpA knockout had shown lower levels of glycopeptidolipids and polar lipids in the cell wall. The microarray data also corraborates our current findings. Organism : Mycobacterium smegmatis, Agilent Custom Mycobacterium smegmatis Gene Expression M.smegmatis_gxp_8X15K (AMADID: 029929) designed by Genotypic Technology Private Limited.