Table 1. Strains and plasmids.

Strain or Plasmid	Description	Source
Strains
B. anthracis
Sterne	Non-encapsulated B. anthracis; parental strain for all mutants; obtained from Dr. Olaf Schneewind	[50]
ΔhssRS	hssRS TCS deletion	[29]
ΔhitRS	hitRS (BAS1816-17) TCS deletion	This study
ΔhssRSΔhitRS	hssRS and hitRS deletions	This study
ΔhssSΔhitR	hssS HK and hitR RR deletions	This study
ΔhssR	hssRRR deletion	This study
ΔhssRΔhitR	hssRRR and hitR RR deletions	This study
ΔhitSΔhssR	hitS HK and hssR RR deletions	This study
ΔhitSΔhssR-hitR:D56N	hitS HK and hssR RR deletions; chromosomal hitR containing D56N mutation	This study
ΔhitR	hitR RR deletion	This study
E. coli
DH5α	Strain used for molecular cloning
Top10	Strain used for molecular cloning
K1077	Methylase-deficient primary recipient for B. anthracis DNA	[51]
BL21 (DE3)	Recombinant protein expression	Invitrogen
Plasmids
phrt	Phrt driven XylE reporter	[29]
phrtDR –	Phrt driven XylE reporter with 4 conserved nucleotides mutated (Fig. 1D)	[29]
phit	Phit driven XylE reporter	This study
phitDR–	Phit driven XylE reporter with 4 conserved nucleotides mutated (Fig. 1D)	This study
phrt-hitDR	Phrt driven XylE reporter with 4 nucleotides unique to Phit DR (Fig. 1D)	This study
phit-hrtDR	Phit driven XylE reporter with 4 nucleotides unique to Phrt DR (Fig. 1D)	This study
pET15b-hssR	HssR expression construct with N-terminal his(6)-tag	[29]
pET15b-hssR:D54N	HssR:D54N expression construct with N-terminal his(6)-tag	[29]
pET15b-hssS	HssS intracellular domain expression construct with N-terminal his(6)-tag	[29]
pET15b-hssS:H248A	HssS:H248A intracellular domain expression construct with N-terminal his(6)-tag	[29]
pET15b(SacII)-hitR	HitR expression construct with N-terminal his(6)-tag; pET15b with SacII restriction site engineered into MCS	This study
pET15b(SacII)-hitR:D56N	HitR:D56N expression construct with N-terminal his(6)-tag; pET15b with SacII restriction site engineered into MCS	This study
pET15b-hitS	HitS intracellular domain expression construct with N-terminal his(6)-tag	This study
pET15b-hitS:H137A	HitS:H137A intracellular domain expression construct with N-terminal his(6)-tag	This study