Crude extracts were diluted to ~0.15 mg/mL protein, and formaldehyde was measured colorimetrically at A540 in an endpoint assay via addition of the chromogen 4-amino-3-hydrozino-5-mercapto-1,2,4-triazole, as previously described [42] (assay kit from Cayman Chemicals). Superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities were determined using a coupled enzyme assay measuring the dismutation of the

superoxide radical formed by xanthine oxidase at 22°C. The reaction was coupled to the conversion of a tetrazolium salt to formazan whose absorbance was measured at A450 in an endpoint assay as described [43] (assay kit from Cayman selleck inhibitor Chemicals). Cell lysates were diluted to ~1.1 μg/mL protein to measure SOD activities. Protein separation and differential display in 2D gels Equal protein amounts from two biological replicates of periplasmic and cytoplasmic fractions were combined and diluted in a 1:5 to 1:10 ratio with RB buffer, which contained 8 M urea, 2 M thiourea, 4% (w/v) CHAPS, 18 mM DTT and 0.5% (v/v) Bio-Lyte pH 3-10 carrier ampholytes. Equal protein amounts from solubilised biological replicates of mixed membrane fractions

were also combined. The rationale for sample pooling is described at the end of the ‘Background’ section. Circa 75 μg protein for Sypro Ruby®-stained gels and 130 μg for Coomassie Brilliant Blue G250 (CBB)-stained gels were loaded via rehydration loading onto 24 cm IPG gel strips (pH ranges 4-7 and 3-10) and separated in the 1st dimension as previously described [39]. Established methods were also used for 2nd dimension slab gel electrophoresis (25 × 19.5 × 0.15 cm), gel staining check details with CBB, scanning and gel image import into the analysis software Proteomweaver v.4.0 [44]. The scope of differential 2D display analysis was extensive, with three subcellular fractions and four growth conditions (fourteen experimental groups for seven group-to-group comparisons, among them two analyses Y27632 for the periplasmic fraction with 2D gels in

the pH ranges 4-7 and 6.5-10). Software-assisted gel image analysis included spot matching, pre-match and post-match spot normalization and spot intensity averaging. The analysis mode did not require internal standards for spot normalization. The Mann-Whitney Test was used for statistical significance analysis of spot abundance changes. It is a non-parametric two sample distribution-free t-test and assesses whether two independent samples of observations come from the same distribution: , where n1 and n2 are numbers of observations in the samples and R1 is the sum of the ranks of the observations in sample 1. P-values determined by this test are based on 3 ≤ n ≤ 5 observations, which reflect 2D spot intensity data from an equal number of replicate gels. Provided that spot abundance ratios were ≥1.5, p-values < 0.02 were considered statistically significant.