FIG. 2.

Map of the ica locus and surrounding sequence in S. aureus ATCC 35556. (A) Genomic organization of the ica locus and surrounding chromosomal region. The region between primers SA12 and SA11 was amplified by PCR and cloned into vector pBT5, creating plasmid pSC18. The solid line indicates the region sequenced and submitted to the EMBL/GenBank/DDBJ nucleotide sequence data libraries; the dashed line indicates previously published sequence (database accession no. M90693). (B) Schematic of pSC23 diagramming the knockout construct. Plasmid pSC18 was amplified by inverse PCR and primers SA14 and SA15, which deleted the sequence between the middle of icaR and the end of icaC. The tetracycline resistance cassette from pT181 (tet) was then ligated into the deleted ica gene locus.