Table 1. Strains, plasmids and primers.

Name	Characteristics	Source
S. aureus
RN4220	Restriction-deficient transformation recipient	Kreiswirth et al. (1983)
USA300 HOU	Sequenced USA300-HOU-MRSA isolate cured of pUSA300-HOU-MRSA	Kolar et al. (2011)
LNS621	RN4220 pLES604 ctpA−	This work
LNS1516	USA300 HOU pLES604 ctpA−	This work
LNS1788	USA300 HOU pLES605 ctpA–lacZ	This work
LNS1789	RN4220 pLES1689	This work
LNS1790	LNS1516 pLES1689 ctpA+	This work
JAI1570	USA300 HOU pOS1sGFP : : PsarA	Weiss et al. (2014)
LNS1893	LNS1516 (USA300 HOU ctpA−) pOS1sGFP : : PsarA	This work
LNS1887	RN4220 pLNS1888	This work
E. coli
Dh5α	Routine cloning strain	Invitrogen
LNS604	Dh5α pLES604	This work
LNS605	Dh5α pLES605	This work
LNS1689	Dh5α pLES1689	This work
Plasmids
pAZ106	Promoterless lacZ suicide vector ermR	Kemp et al. (1991)
pMK4	Shuttle vector cmR	Sullivan et al. (1984)
pLES604	pAZ106 containing 471 bp ctpA fragment	This work
pLES605	pAZ106 containing 1656 bp ctpA promoter fragment	This work
pLES1689	pMK4 containing 2365 bp ctpA-his6 fragment	This work
pOS1sGFP : : PsarA	sarA promoter controlling expression of gfp	Benson et al. (2012)
Primers
OL1958	5′-CTGGAGAATTCGTGAAAATTGAAG-3′
OL1959	5′-GCGCGGATCCTTAATGATGATGATGATGATGTTTTAAAATATTAATCAACTTATCG-3′
OL255	5′-ACTGGATCCGCTGTCATCACAGTTGTTGC-3′
OL256	5′-ATGGAATTCCACTACCTCGTTGAACAG-3′
OL257	5′-ACTGGATCCGAAAGTGGCGGCTTAAGA-3′