Congo Red secretion assays were performed
as previously described.29 (link) Briefly, the
total cell and supernatant fractions were separated by two centrifugations
at 20 000g for 2 min. The cell pellet of the initial centrifugation
was taken as the total cell fraction. The pellet was resuspended in
200 μL of protein loading dye (40% glycerol, 240 mM Tris/HCl
pH 6.8, 8% SDS, 0.04% bromophenol blue, 5% beta-mercaptoethanol),
and 5 μL was loaded onto a 10% SDS-PAGE gel for analysis. Proteins
in the supernatant were precipitated with trichloroacetic acid (TCA)
(10% v/v) and resuspended in 50 μL of protein loading dye. Ten
microliters of supernatant sample was loaded onto a 10% SDS-PAGE gel
for analysis. Protein content of the pellet and supernatant fraction
were assessed by western blotting with anti-FLAG (Sigma), anti-β-lactamase
(sc-66062, Santa Cruz), or anti-MyoD (C-20, Santa-Cruz) antibodies.
For type 3 secretion expression analysis, membranes were probed with
anti-IpaB and anti-IpaD antibodies, proteins in the type 3 secretion
needle apparatus. Controls for cell lysis were conducted using anti-DnaK
(a cytoplasmic protein found in Shigella and E. coli) (Abcam ab69617).