Transcriptional profiles of NCTC11168 grown with or without 25mM fucose

Strain specific growth of C. jejuni on fucose has been linked to a plasticity region of the chromosome (PR2) and confers a competitive advantage during intestinal colonization. Growth on fucose induces gene expression of PR2 genes, but the regulatory mechanism of the structural genes involved with fucose utilization is unknown. Additionally, the mechanism of fucose dissimilation by C. jejuni is not known since no fucose catabolism homologs are found in the C. jejuni genome. Transcriptional profiles of C. jejuni grown with and without fucose may provide insight in to the genes that are necessary for fucose utilization. The design utilized an available two color microarray slide for the entire transcriptome of Campylobacter jejuni wild type strain NCTC 11168. Each sample represents one competitive hybridization: sham-treated NCTC 11168 v.s. 25mM fucose treated NCTC 11168. There were four biological replicates of each sample with a dye swap introduced in alternating replicates. Samples were independently grown, treated and harvested.