The positive

correlation between plasmid copy number and level of recombinant protein expression is well established, and we have also used it specifically for Pm in mini-RK2 plasmids [23–25, 36]. However, in previous applications the level of XylS expression was not taken into consideration and in all reported STI571 experiments the number of xylS copies was increased equally to the number of Pm. The trfA variant cop271 leads to 3-4-fold increased plasmid copy number compared to its wild type equivalent (4–8 copies per chromosome) [37]. This variant was integrated into pFS15 (generating pFS15.271) and transformed into cells, which already harbored pFZ2B1 or pFZ2B1.StEP-13. Host ampicillin tolerance was then monitored as a function of XylS expression (luciferase activity), and the previously observed maximum ampicillin tolerance level was found to increase only marginally, both for wild type XylS and StEP-13, and much less than in proportion to the expected increase in XylS binding sites. The maximum GSI-IX nmr ampicillin tolerance level also leveled out at similar XylS expression levels as with the wild type copy number (Figure 3, circles). Based on this we concluded that at maximum expression from pFS15 the limiting factor is not the number of target DNA molecules for XylS

binding. This is also in agreement with previously published studies, in which the authors concluded that the interactions between XylS and Pm are too weak to lead to complete saturation [21]. Since the number of target DNA molecules did not appear to limit the maximum expression level from Pm we reasoned that more likely some property of XylS was causing

the apparent saturation Urease of the https://www.selleckchem.com/ATM.html system at a certain concentration of this regulator. In the presence of very high XylS concentrations expression from Pm can reach the upper maximum level in the absence of inducer It is known that Pm looses its inducibility at high levels of XylS expression [21, 30]. As we now had a way of varying and semi-quantitatively measuring XylS concentrations we could also evaluate the response in the absence of Pm inducer (Figure 4, white squares). In the absence of both m-toluate and cyclohexanone cells with pFZ2B1 and pFS15 did not tolerate significantly more ampicillin than cells without any plasmid. As expected, the activation of the Pm promoter was less sensitive to the presence of cyclohexanone than to the presence of m-toluate. This implies that the induction ratio of the system becomes higher as a function of XylS expression levels, up to the point where the maximum expression is observed. A maximum induction ratio of about 700 is reached at this point (about five times more XylS expression than in the absence of cyclohexanone).