Ordering genes in a flagella pathway by analysis of expression kinetics from living bacteria

The recent advances in large-scale monitoring of gene expression raise the challenge of mapping systems on the basis of kinetic expression data in liv ing cells. To address this, we measured promoter activity in the flagellar system of Escherichia coli at high accuracy and temporal resolution by mean s of reporter plasmids. The genes in the pathway were ordered by analysis a lgorithms without dependence on mutant strains. The observed temporal progr am of transcription was much more detailed than was previously thought and was associated with multiple steps of flagella assembly.