Screening of genes related to methylglyoxal susceptibility

Methylglyoxal (MG) is a reactive metabolite known to accumulate in certain physiological conditions. We attempted to isolate genes associated with this metabolite by genome-wide mutagenesis with TnphoA derivative. After screening on methylglyoxal-containing plate, we obtained insertions in three different genes, ydbD, yjjQ, and yqiI, which gave rise to reproducible MG-sensitive phenotypes in glyoxalase-deficient strain. In addition to its MG sensitivity, the insertion in yqiI exhibited an impaired motility resulting from a reduced flagellar expression.