Table 1.

Bacterial strains and plasmids used in this study

Strain or plasmid	Relevant characteristics	Source/reference
Strains
NZ3900	Host for food-grade use of the NICE system by plasmids election based on the ability to grow on lactose as carbon source.	MoBiTec
L. lactis	L. lactis NZ3900 containing pNZ8149 plasmid	MoBiTec
L. lactis-RCK	L. lactis NZ3900 containing pNZ8149-RCK plasmid	This study
L. lactis-VP2-RCK	L. lactis NZ3900 containing pNZ8149-VP2-RCK	This study
Plasmid
pNZ8149	High-copy number lactococcal vector	MoBiTec
pNZ8149-RCK	Vector carrying rck gene	This study
pNZ8149-VP2-RCK	Vector carrying VP2 gene and rck gene	This study