Table 1 Strains and plasmids used in this study

Strains

B. cereus ATCC 14579

Laboratory collection

B. cereus ΔplcR

ATCC 14579 plcR::Km

[6]

B. cereus ΔyvfTU

ATCC 14579 yvfTU::Km

This work

E. coli TG1

[Δ(lac-proAB) supE thi hsd-5 (F' traD36 proA⁺ proB⁺ lacI^q lacZΔM15)]

Laboratory collection

E. coli ET12567

(F^- dam-13::Tn9 dcm-6 hsdM hsdR recF143 zjj-202: :Tn10 galK2 galT22 ara14 pacY1 xyl-5 leuB6 thi-1)

Laboratory collection

Plasmids

pUC18

Ap^R cloning vector

Laboratory collection

pMAD

Ap^R and Em^R shuttle vector

[45]

pHT304

Ap^R and Em^R cloning vector

[58]

pHT304-Km

aphAIII with its own promoter cloned in SalI and PstI sites of pHT304

This work

pMADΔ yvfTU

Recombinant pMAD harboring yvfTU::Km

This work

pHT304-18'Z

Ap^R and Em^R cloning vehicle; lacZ reporter gene

[48]

pHT-yvfTU

yvfTU and its promoter (2514 bp) cloned in PstI and EcoRI sites of pHT304

This work

pHT-plcR'Z

1836 bp region upstream from plcR start codon cloned between the HindIII and XbaI sites of pHT304-18'Z

This work

pHT-yvfT'Z

649 bp region upstream from yvfT start codon cloned in PstI and BamHI sites of pHT304-18'Z

This work