Northern blot analysis of spa (A), rot (B), and sarS (C). (A) Analysis for the spa transcript in BK9986 (rot agr) and RN6911 (agr) at the late-exponential phase of growth. (B and C) RNA samples from BK9986 (rot agr), BK9987 (sarS agr), RN6911 (agr), and RN6390 (wild-type [wt] strain) at the late-exponential phase of growth were hybridized with rot- and sarS-specific probes, respectively.