RESUMO
The aim of current study was to estimate the influence of waaL(OS) and waaL(PS) genes deletion on lipopolysaccharide (LPS) synthesis, bacterial motility and stress resistance of bacteria Yersinia enterocolitica 6471/76. Single and double waaL mutants were created by replacing the wild-type alleles in bacterial chromosome for mutant ones. The phenotypes of mutants were visualized by DOC-PAGE gels stained with silver and immunoblot with specific to O-polysaccharide and outer core monoclonal antibodies. Bacterial motility was evaluated by the diameter of the migration zone. Wild type bacteria and mutants were analyzed by bacterial growth curves in a hypertonic medium. Participation of WaaL ligases in resistance to osmotic pressure was found only in case of both ligese genes deletion. Also the YeO3_os_ps mutants showed motility decreasing, which recovered after adding a functionally active gene. Thus, deletion of both waaL ligase genes lead to a drastic reduction in bacterial motility and increase their sensitivity to hypertonic medium that can indirectly characterize biological role of WaaL ligases.