Table 1 Bacterial strains and plasmids used in this study

 LFI1238

Wild-type, isolated from Atlantic cod

[18]

 ΔlitR

LFI1238 containing an in-frame deletion in litR

[22]

 ΔrpoQ

LFI1238 containing an in-frame deletion in rpoQ

This study

 ΔrpoQ_c

ΔrpoQ strain complemented with wild-type copy of the rpoQ gene, Cm^r

This study

 ΔlitR-rpoQ⁻

ΔlitR stain with an insertional disruption in rpoQ, Cm^r

This study

 LFI1238-pVSV102

LFI1238 carrying pVSV102, Kn^r

This study

 ΔlitR-pVSV102

ΔlitR carrying pVSV102, Kn^r

This study

 ΔrpoQ-pVSV102

ΔrpoQ carrying pVSV102, Kn^r

This study

 LFI1238-pTM214

LFI1238 carrying pTM214, Cm^r

This study

 LFI1238-Ptrc-rpoQ

LFI1238 carrying pTM214-rpoQ, Cm^r

This study

 ΔlitR-pTM214

ΔlitR carrying pTM214, Cm^r

This study

 ΔlitR-Ptrc-rpoQ

ΔlitR carrying pTM214-rpoQ, Cm^r

This study

 S17λpir

Donor strain for conjugation

[65]

 JM109

Strain for subcloning pGEM-T constructs

[66]

 DH5α

Strain for cloning

Thermo Fisher

 C118λpir

Helper strain containing pEVS104

[32]

 DH5αλpir

Donor strain for conjugation harboring pVSV102

[32]

 PIR2

Donor strain for conjugation harboring pTM214

[33]

 pDM4

Suicide vector with an R6K origin, sacBR and Cm^r

[35]

 pNQ705

Suicide vector with an R6K origin, Cm^r

[35]

 pDM4-ΔrpoQ

pDM4 containing a fragment of rpoQ harboring an internal deletion

This study

 pNQ705-rpoQ_c

pNQ705 containing a full length rpoQ and flanking sequences

This study

 pNQ705-rpoQ⁻

pNQ705 containing an internal 304 bp fragment of rpoQ

This study

 pTM214

pVSV105, Ptrc-mCherry, Cm^r

[33]

 pVSV102

pES213, constitutive GFP, Kn^r

[67]

 pEVS104

Helper plasmid, R6K origin, RP4, oriT, trb, tra and Kn^r

[32]

 pTM214-rpoQ

pVSV105, Ptrc-rpoQ (a full length rpoQ copy), Cm^r

This study

 pGEM-T

TA cloning vector, white/blue screening, Amp^r

Promega