Key Resources Table

Bacillus subtilis strains used in this study
Strain	Genotype	Reference
PY79	Prototrophic derivative of B. subtilis 168	(Youngman et al., 1984)
KR94	ΔspoVM::tetR	(Ramamurthi et al., 2006)
EYKS883	ΔspoVM::tet, amyE::spoVM cat
EYKS884	ΔspoVM::tet, amyE::spoVMP9A cat
EYKS917	ΔspoVM::tet, amyE::spoVMK7P,P9A cat
EYKS918	ΔspoVM::tet, amyE::spoVML8P,P9A cat
EYKS885	ΔspoVM::tet, amyE::spoVMP9A,K10P cat
EYKS886	ΔspoVM::tet, amyE::spoVMP9A,F11P cat
EYKS909	ΔspoVM::tet, amyE::spoVMP9G cat
KR160	thrC::gfp-spoIVA spec	(Ramamurthi and Losick, 2008)
KR178	ΔspoVM::tet, thrC::gfp-spoIVA spec	(Ramamurthi and Losick, 2008)
KR165	ΔspoVM::tet, thrC::gfp-spoIVA spec, amyE::spoVM cat	(Ramamurthi and Losick, 2008)
SE50	ΔspoVM::tet, thrC::gfp-spoIVA spec, amyE::spoVMP9A cat	(Ebmeier et al., 2012)
EYKS919	ΔspoVM::tet, thrC::gfp-spoIVA spec, amyE::spoVMK7P,P9A cat
EYKS920	ΔspoVM::tet, thrC::gfp-spoIVA spec, amyE::spoVML8P,P9A cat
EYKS892	ΔspoVM::tet, thrC::gfp-spoIVA spec, amyE::spoVMP9A,K10P cat
EYKS893	ΔspoVM::tet, thrC::gfp-spoIVA spec, amyE::spoVMP9A,F11P cat
EYKS929	ΔspoVM::tet, thrC::gfp-spoIVA spec, amyE::spoVMP9G cat
CVO1195	amyE::spoVM-gfp cat	(van Ooij and Losick, 2003)
CVO1395	amyE::spoVMP9A-gfp cat	(van Ooij and Losick, 2003)
EYKS869	amyE::spoVMP9A,K7P-gfp cat
EYKS870	amyE::spoVMP9A,L8P-gfp cat
EYKS871	amyE::spoVMP9A,K10P-gfp cat
EYKS872	amyE::spoVMP9A,F11P-gfp cat
EYKS873	amyE::spoVMP9A,L12P-gfp cat
EYKS874	amyE::spoVMP9A,G13P-gfp cat
EYKS875	amyE::spoVMP9A,V16P-gfp cat
EYKS904	amyE::spoVMP9G-gfp cat
Item	Manufacturer	Catalog number
Peptides
SpoVM-FITC and variants	Biomatik	Custom
Lipids
E. coli polar lipid extract	Avanti Polar Lipids, Inc.	100600C
Beads
2 μm silica microspheres	Polysciences, Inc.	24328–15
8 μm silica microspheres	Cospheric, LLC	SiO2MS-1.8 8um
Fluorescence bead reference	Bangs Laboratories, Inc.	555