Table 1 Plasmids and strains

Plasmids

 pHY300-PLK

B. subtilis protein expression vector; Ap^r, TC^r

NIGEB collection

 pChiM

Recombinant pHY plasmid containing Chitinase (ChiS), cell wall sorting motif and sortase (YhcS)

Previous study

 pSpA-YhcS

Recombinant pHY plasmid containing spa gene, cell wall sorting motif (CWM) and B.subtilis sortase (YhcS)

This study

 pNC1

Recombinant pHY plasmid containing spa gene and cell wall sorting motif but lacks the enzyme sortase

This study

 pNC2

Recombinant pHY plasmid containing spa gene but lacks the enzyme sortase and CWM

This study

Strains

 E.coli (DH5α)

F- endA1 glnV44 thi-1 recA1 relA1 gyrA96 deoR nupG Φ80dlacZΔM15 Δ(lacZYA-argF)U169, hsdR17(rK −  mK +), λ − 

Invitrogen

 B. subtilis (WASD)

trpC wprA::kan sigD::cat

NIGEB collection

 Bs-pHY

B. subtilis (WASD) transformed with pHY300-PLK

This study

 Bs-SpA

B. subtilis (WASD) transformed with pSpA-YhcS

This study

 Bs-NC1

B. subtilis (WASD) transformed with pNC1

This study

 Bs-NC2

B. subtilis (WASD) transformed with pNC2

This study