Table 1 Strains and plasmids used in this work

 Rhodobacter sphaeroides

  WS8N

wild-type; spontaneous Nal^R

[52]

  AM1

WS8N derivate, Fla2⁺, ΔfleQ::kan cckA_L391

[16]

  EA1

AM1 derivative, ΔctrA::aadA

[15]

  AR1

AM1 derivative ΔflgB2-fliI2::Ω^Spc

This work

  TOP10

Cloning strain

Invitrogen

  S17–1

recA endA thi hsdR RP4–2-Tc::Mu::Tn7

[53]

  Rosetta

Protein expression strain, Cm^R

Novagen

 pTZ19R

Cloning vector Ap^R

Fermentas

 pCR2.1-TOPO

Cloning vector, Ap^R

Invitrogen

 pJQ200mp18

Mobilizable suicide vector; Gm^R

[32]

 pRK415

Expression vector for R. sphaeroides

[54]

 pRK415/uidA

pRK415 carrying the uidA-aadA cassette

This work

 pWM5

Vector source of the uidA-aadA cassette

[55]

 pRK_flgB2p::uidA-aadA

pRK415/uidA carrying flgB2p

This work

 pRK_flgE2p::uidA-aadA

pRK415/uidA carrying flgE2p

This work

 pRK_fliF2p::uidA-aadA

pRK415/uidA carrying fliF2p

This work

 pRK_fliI2p::uidA-aadA

pRK415/uidA carrying fliI2p

This work

 pRK_fliL2p::uidA-aadA

pRK415/uidA carrying fliL2p

This work