Table 1. Bacterial strains and their construction.

Strain	Description	Reference or origin
B. subtilis strains
PY79	Prototrophic derivative of B. subtilis 168	Youngman et al. (1984)
MO649	thrC : : cat	Guérout-Fleury et al. (1996)
IB220	spo0A : : kan	Schmeisser et al. (2000)
IB1056	minDBs : : cat	Barák et al. (2008)
IB1107	minDBs : : cat amyE : : Pxyl–minE–gfp spc	Pavlendová et al. (2010)
IB1110	amyE : : Phyperspank–yfp–minDEc spc	Pavlendová et al. (2010)
IB1111	minDBs : : cat amyE : : Phyperspank–yfp–minDEc spc	Pavlendová et al. (2010)
IB1112	minDBs : : cat divIVA : : tet amyE : : Phyperspank–yfp–minDEc spc	Pavlendová et al. (2010)
IB1155	minDBs : : cat amyE : : Phyperspank–yfp–minDEc spc thrC : : Pxyl–minE–gfp erm	IB1111 : : pSGminE
IB1244	trpC2 minJ : : pMUTIN4(bla erm PspaclacZ lacI) minCD : : aph–A3 kan	Bramkamp et al. (2008)
IB1228	thrC : : Pxyl–minE erm	MO649 : : pNP–minE
IB1229	amyE : : Phyperspank–yfp–minDEc spc thrC : : Pxyl–minE erm	IB1110 : : chr DNA IB1228
IB1230	minDBs : : cat amyE : : Phyperspank–yfp–minDEc spc thrC : : Pxyl–minE erm	IB1111 : : chr DNA IB1228
IB1242	minDBs : : cat divIVA : : tet amyE : : Phyperspank–yfp–minDEc spc thrC : : Pxyl–minE erm	IB1112 : : chr DNA IB1228
IB1362	minJ : : kan	PY79 : : pUS19–ΔminJ
IB1363	minDBs : : cat minJ : : kan amyE : : Phyperspank–minDEc spc thrC : : PxylminE erm	IB1230 : : chr DNA IB1362
IB1369	minCDBs : : kan amyE : : Phyperspank–yfp–minDEc spc	IB1110 : : chr DNA IB1244
IB1370	minCDBs : : kan amyE : : Phyperspank–yfp–minDEc spc thrC : : PXyl–minE erm	IB1369 : : chr DNA IB1228
IB1371	minCDBs : : kan	IB333 : : chr DNA IB1244
E. coli strains
MM294	F− endA1 hsdR17 (rk−, mk) supE44 thi-1 recA+	Meselson & Yuan (1968)
YLS1 : : pYLS68	DminCDE Plac : : yfp–minDEc : : minE–cfp	Shih et al. (2002)
BTH101	F− cya-99 araD139 galE15 galK16 rpsL1(Strr) hsdR2 mcrA1 mcrB1	Karimova et al. (1998)