TABLE 1.
Strains and plasmids used in this study
| Strain or plasmid | Reference | Description |
|---|---|---|
| S. aureus | ||
| RN6390 | 17 | Laboratory strain that maintains its hemolytic pattern when propagated on sheep erythrocytes and has a genetic background similar to that of 8325-4 |
| RN4220 | 17 | Mutant of 8325-4 that accepts foreign DNA |
| ALC1001 | 3 | sigB mutant of RN6390 |
| ALC1497 | 3 | ALC1001 complemented with shuttle plasmid pALC1496 (with the sigB gene) |
| ALC2158 | This study | RN6390 containing pALC2073 |
| ALC2085 | This study | RN6390 containing pALC2084 (pALC2073::gfpuvr) |
| ALC2109 | This study | RN6390 containing pALC2073::sigB |
| E. coli | ||
| XL-1 Blue | Cloning strain | |
| TOP10F′ | Invitrogen | Strain for cloning PCR fragments |
| Plasmids | ||
| pCR2.1 | Invitrogen | PCR cloning vector |
| pSK236 | 6 | S. aureus-E. coli shuttle vector with pUC19 cloned into the HindIII site of pC194 |
| pWH353 | 7 | Plasmid carrying an 800-bp fragment comprising the tetR gene (encoding the TetR repressor) and the xyl/tetO promoter |
| pALC2073 | This study | pSK236 containing the tetR gene and the xyl/tetO promoter that were cleaved from pWH353 and cloned into the PstI and SmaI sites |
| pALC2084 | This study | pALC2073 with gfpuvr cloned into the EcoRI site |
| pALC2109 | This study | pALC2073 with sigB cloned into the EcoRI site |