Profiling early osmostress-dependent gene expression in Escherichia coli using DNA macroarrays

DNA macroarray technology was used to monitor early transcriptional alterations of Escherichia coli in response to an osmotic upshift imposed by the addition of 0.4 M NaCl. Altered mRNA levels of 152 genes were detected; 45 genes showed increased expression while the expression of the remaining 107 genes was reduced. Northern blot analysis of several selected genes differing in their relative expression values confirmed the results obtained by the array technology.