Briefly, several amounts of the recombinant MucR purified from E. coli Bl21 (DE3) and of the naturally expressed MucR from S. meliloti 1021 were mixed with the DNA target sites tested in binding buffer (25 mM HEPES pH 7.9, 50 mM KCl, 6.25 mM MgCl2, 5% glycerol). Samples were incubated 10 min on ice and loaded in a 5% polyacrylamide gel. Electrophoresis was performed in 0.5× TBE and run at room temperature for 70 min at 200 V. Gels were stained for 20 min using Diamond™ Nucleic Acid Dye (Promega, Singapore) following the manufacturer’s instructions and imaged by Typhoon Trio+ scanner (GE Healthcare, Chicago, IL, USA).
For competition assays, competitors were added to the reaction mixture, prepared as described above, after proteins were incubated 10 min on ice with the FAM-labeled double-stranded oligonucleotides. After adding the competitors, samples were incubated for a further 10 min on ice and then loaded in a 5% polyacrylamide gel. Images were acquired by Typhoon Trio+ scanner (GE Healthcare) on the base of the FAM-labeled DNA fluorescence.
Protein amounts used, sequences, and amounts of double-stranded DNA targets are indicated in figures and figure legends.