Transcriptional Analysis of Essential Genes of the Escherichia coli Fatty Acid Biosynthesis Gene Cluster by Functional Replacement with the Analogous Salmonella typhimurium Gene Cluster

The genes encoding several key fatty acid biosynthetic enzymes (called the fab cluster) are clustered in the order plsX-fabH-fabD-fabG-acpP-fabF at min 24 of the Escherichia coli chromosome. A difficulty in analysis of the fab cluster by the polar allele duplication approach (Y. Zhang and J. E. Cronan, Jr., J. Bacteriol. 178:3614–3620, 1996) is that several of these genes are essential for the growth of E. coli . We overcame this complication by...