Fig. 1: C. rodentium encodes a highly specific D-ribulose utilisation system.

a RNA-seq data identifying upregulation of ROD_24811 during C. rodentium colonisation of the murine caecum and rectum at peak infection (day 10) compared to growth in laboratory medium (DMEM). Data were derived from Connolly et al.¹⁶. and represent differential expression calculated as fold change using edgeR with a false discovery rate of 5%. b Genomic context of the C. rodentium ROD_24811-61 locus (blue) compared to the EHEC aau locus (green). Locus tags are labelled above each gene, with the proposed gene name illustrated within the corresponding gene. Chromosomal co-ordinates are indicated below and neighbouring genes in grey. c Summary of the predicted function and amino acid sequence percentage identity between the ROD_24811-61 and Aau components. d Transcriptional reporter assay of C. rodentium transformed with the pMK1lux-P₂₄₈₁₁ plasmid cultured in MEM-HEPES alone or supplemented with 0.5 mg/ml D-ribulose (blue), ʟ-arabinose (green), D-ribose (pink) or D-xylose (orange). Data are depicted as luminescence units (LUX) divided by optical density (OD₆₀₀) of the culture at each timepoint. e Growth curve depicting OD₆₀₀ values over time of wild type C. rodentium, ∆rbl (full ROD_24811-61 locus deletion), and ∆rbl + pSU-rbl cultured in M9 minimal media supplemented with 0.5 mg/mL D-ribulose. The no sugar control indicates wild type C. rodentium inoculated into M9 without a carbon source. Error bars for reporter assays and growth curves represent the standard deviation from the mean of three independent experiments (n = 3 biological replicates). Source data are provided as a Source Data file.