Table 1 Bacterial strains and plasmids

Strains

E. coli DH5α

Host for DNA cloning

Laboratory collection

S. aureus

 RN4220

Restriction-deficient derivative of S. aureus RN450

[11]

 N315

MRSA carrying type II SCCmec

[12]

 N315EX

Isogenic MSSA derivative of N315

This study

Plasmids

pUC28

ColE1 replicon, high copy number vector for cloning, ampicillin resistance

[13]

pSR3-1

Thermosensitive-replicon plasmid carrying the ccrAB genes of strain N315 (used for SCCmec excision in N315), tetracycline resistance

[7]

qPlasmid

Plasmid used for qPCR analysis

This study