Table 1 Strains and plasmids

S. aureus

RN4220

Restriction-negative derivative of NCTC8325-4

[48]

BB255

NCTC8325 derivative, cured of plasmid pI524

[49]

BB255ΔVraR

BB255 containing vraR mutation, truncating VraR after the 2^nd amino acid

This study

E. coli

DH5α

F^- φ80lac Z∆M15 ∆(lac ZYA-arg F)U169 rec A1 end A1 hsd R17(r_k^-, m_k⁺) pho A sup E44 thi-1 gyr A96 rel A1λ^-

Invitrogen

Plasmids

pSP-luc+

Luciferase fusion plasmid, ori ColE1, bla, luc+; Ap^r

Promega

pBUS1

E. coli - S. aureus shuttle vector, tetL ; Tc^r

[31]

pKOR1

E. coli - S. aureus shuttle plasmid, for creating markerless deletions; repF (ts), cat, attP, ccdB, ori ColE1, bla, Pxyl/tetO, secY570; Ap^r, Cm^r

[25]

pKOR1-VraR::stop

pKOR1 construct containing mutant vraR insert with XhoI site and two inframe stop codons inserted between the 2^nd and 3^rd vraR codons.

[26]

psas016_p-luc+

pBUS1 containing the sas016 promoter-luciferase reporter gene fusion

[26]

ptcaA_p-luc+

pBUS1 containing the tcaA promoter-luciferase reporter gene fusion

This study

psa0908_p-luc+

pBUS1 containing the sa0908 promoter-luciferase reporter gene fusion

This study