Table 1 Bacterial strains and plasmids used in this study

Strains

 Ec

E. coli wild type strain K12 MG1655

[34]

 Bs

B. subtilis Marburg wild type 168, trpC2

[35]

 BL21

E. coli strain BL21-DE3

CGSC stock

 EcΔfliK

E. coli K12 MG1655 with deleten fliK

This study

 EcΔlac

E. coli K12 MG1655 with deleted lac operon

[14]

 Ec(I1Bs)

Ec with B. subtilis DNA fragment 1 integrated

This study

 Ec(I12Bs)

Ec with B. subtilis DNA fragments 1,2 integrated

This study

 Ec(I123Bs)

Ec with B. subtilis DNA fragments 1,2,3 integrated

This study

 Ec(I1234Bs)

Ec with B. subtilis DNA fragments 1,2,3,4 integrated

This study

 Ec(I12345Bs)

Ec with B. subtilis DNA fragments 1,2,3,4,5 integrated

This study

 Ec(I123456Bs)

Ec with B. subtilis DNA fragments 1,2,3,4,5,6 integrated

This study

 Ec(I1234567Bs)

Ec with B. subtilis DNA fragments 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 integrated

This study

 EcΔlac(I1)

EcΔlac with DNA fragment 1 integrated

This study

 EcΔlac(I12)

EcΔlac with DNA fragments 1,2 integrated

This study

 EcΔlac(I123)

EcΔlac with DNA fragments 1,2,3 integrated

This study

 EcΔlac(I1234)

EcΔlac with DNA fragments 1,2,3,4 integrated

This study

Plasmids

 pJScav

cat-yfp cassette

[36]

 p14kan

kan cassette

[16]

 pKM208

plasmid with lambda Red system, IPTG inducible

[26]

 pCP20

plasmid encoding flippase (FLP) recombinase

[20]

 p14kan(I1Bs)

p14kan with B. subtilis DNA fragment 1

This study

 pJScav(I2Bs)

pJScav with B. subtilis DNA fragment 2

This study

 p14kan(I3Bs)

p14kan with B. subtilis DNA fragment 3

This study

 pJScav(I4Bs)

pJScav with B. subtilis DNA fragment 4

This study

 p14kan(I5Bs)

p14kan with B. subtilis DNA fragment 5

This study

 pJScav(I6Bs)

pJScav with B. subtilis DNA fragment 6

This study

 p14kan(I7Bs)

p14kan with B. subtilis DNA fragment 7

This study

 p14kan(I1)

p14kan with DNA fragment 1

This study

 pJScav(I2)

pJScav with DNA fragment 2

This study

 p14kan(I3)

p14kan with DNA fragment 3

This study

 pJScav(I4)

pJScav with DNA fragment 4

This study