6-0.8.

Germination was described as an approximate percentage of phase dark spores after screening of microscopic slides by phase contrast microscopy (100 x). Experiments were performed in duplicate on two individual spore batches and repeated at least twice. DNA sequencing and bioinformatics DNA sequencing was performed by GATC Biotech (Konstanz, Germany) or Source BioScience (Nottingham, United Kingdom). The genomic sequence of B. licheniformis DSM13 [48] was accessed at http://​www.​ncbi.​nml.​nih.​gov [GenBank: AE017333]. Acknowledgements and Funding We would like to thank Kristin O’Sullivan (Norwegian School of selleck chemicals llc Veterinary Science, Oslo, Norway) for technical assistance and Dr Graham Christie (University of Cambridge, England) for sharing the pHT315 vector. The pMAD plasmid was a gift from Michel Débarbouillé (Institut Pasteur, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, France). The work has been financially supported by the Research Council of Norway (grant 178299/I10). References 1. DMXAA Setlow P: Spore germination. Curr Opin Microbiol 2003, 6:550–556.PubMedCrossRef 2. Moir A, Smith DA: The genetics of bacterial

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