Table 1 Bacterial strains and plasmids

Strains

 Escherichia coli DH5αF‘

endA1, hsdR17 (r ⁻_K , m ⁺_K ), supE44, thi-1, gyrA96, relA1, ∆(lacIZYA-argF), U169, deoR, F’Φ(80dlacZ M15)

Woodcock et al. (1989)

 Bacillus subtilis SCK6

BGSC 1A751 derivative, Em^R, lacA::PxylA-comK

Zhang and Zhang (2011)

 Bacillus licheniformis DSM13

Wild type

DSMZ, Accession No. AE017333.1

 Bacillus subtilis NCIB3610

Wild type

Branda et al. (2001)

 Bacillus licheniformis DSM13 ∆spoIV

Sporulation-deficient DSM13 derivative

Hoffmann et al. (2010)

 Bacillus licheniformis MW3.1

DSM13 derivative; ΔhsdR1, ΔhsdR2, ΔpyrE

Hoffmann et al. (2010)

 Bacillus licheniformis CM1

MW3.1 ∆comI::aphA

This work

 Bacillus licheniformis CM2

MW3.1 P _comI ::pMUTIN-comI

This work

Plasmids

 pMMcomK

E. coli/Bacillus shuttle vector, pMM1522 derivative, B. licheniformis MW3 ComK expression vector, Amp^R, Tet^R

Hoffmann et al. (2010)

 pUppem

pUCBM20 derivative, PrpoB-upp fusion, Amp^R, Em^R, ori _{E. coli}

Borgmeier et al. (2012)

 pMB03

pUppem derivative, Kan^R, Em^R, Amp^R, ori _E.coli

M. Buchholz, this laboratory

 pUE∆comI

pUppem derivative, ∆comI::aphA substitution cassette

This work

 pMUTIN-GFP+

pMUTIN derivative,integrative vector for Bacillus, Amp^R, Em^R

Kaltwasser et al. (2002)

 pMUTIN-comI

pMUTIN-GFP+ derivative, P _comI -GFP fusion, inducible (IPTG) comI expression

This work