Overview of sRNA gene deletion mutants and selected features.

<p>* published in Heyer <i>et al.</i>, 2012.</p

Scatter plot of the microarray analysis of the transcriptomes of parent strain and deletion mutant Δ63.

<p>Average signals of four biological replicates are shown. The experiment included a dye swap. The RNA was isolated after the exposures of the cultures to 1% (v/v) ethanol for 15 minutes. The solid line represents the diagonal (identical transcript levels in parent strain and mutant). The dotted lines represent a twofold difference between parent strain and mutant.</p

Growth curves of the parent strain (black) and selected mutants (in color) grown at extreme salt concentrations.

<p><b>A.</b> Parent strain and ΔH225.2R (red) grown at 1.2 M NaCl. <b>B.</b> Parent strain, Δ194 (purple), and Δ235 (red) grown at 2.1 M NaCl. <b>C.</b> Parent strain, Δ63 (orange), Δ194 (purple), Δ235 (red), and Δ288 (green) grown at 4.0 M NaCl.</p

Numbers of mutants with phenotypic difference to the parent strain during growth at three different NaCl concentrations.

<p>Numbers of mutants with phenotypic difference to the parent strain during growth at three different NaCl concentrations.</p

Growth curves of the parent strain (black) and selected mutants (in color) grown with different carbon sources.

<p><b>A.</b> Parent strain, Δ194 (purple), and Δ235 (red) grown on glucose. <b>B.</b> Parent strain and Δ63 (orange) grown on xylose. <b>C.</b> Parent strain, Δ450 (green), and Δ362 (rose) grown on acetate.</p

Schematic representation of all conditions under which sRNAs have important functions in <i>H. volcanii</i>.

<p>The importance of sRNAs was either deduced from phenotypic analysis of deletion mutants (this publication) or from the analyis of differential expression using Northern blot analysis and high throughput sequencing <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0090763#pone.0090763-Heyer1" target="_blank">[29]</a>, <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0090763#pone.0090763-Straub1" target="_blank">[33]</a>.</p

Swarm plate analysis of parent strain (H26) and deletion mutant Δ63 in the absence and presence of 1% (v/v) ethanol, as indicated.

<p>The pictures were taken at four different times after inoculation, as indicated.</p

Conservation of <i>H. volcanii</i> sRNAs.

<p>* published in Heyer <i>et al.</i>, 2012.</p

Distribution of intergenic sRNA genes on the replicons of <i>H. volcanii</i>.

<p>Distribution of intergenic sRNA genes on the replicons of <i>H. volcanii</i>.</p

Swarming velocity of the parent strains (black, grey) and 17 mutants.

<p>The mutant with a gain of function phenotype is shown in blue, the five mutants with a loss of function phenotype are shown in red. Average values of three replicates and their standard deviations are shown.</p