Fig. 6: ComK induces DNA acquisition as a nucleotide source for DNA repair/synthesis.

A Schematic representation of the stable isotope probing (SIP) experimental workflow using labeled DNA. Staphylococcal cultures were supplemented with a 4.5 kb ¹³C and ¹⁵N-labeled DNA fragment, which was PCR-amplified from B. subtilis genome (20 μg/ml). Cells were washed, pelleted and the ¹³C/¹⁵N content of the S. aureus genome and proteome was analyzed by elemental analyzer isotope ratio mass spectrometry (EA-IRMS). Samples were taken at 24 and 48 h incubation period. B EA-IRMS analyses of the ¹³C/¹⁵N content (left/right panel, respectively) of genomes from S. aureus WT and different mutants at 24 and 48 h incubation period. C EA-IRMS analyses of the ¹³C/¹⁵N content of proteomes from S. aureus WT and different mutants. In B, C, the ¹³C and ¹⁵N contents are expressed as atom %. This is the percentage of the total carbon or nitrogen consisting of ¹³C or ¹⁵N, respectively. The negative control (C−) was a WT strain grown without labeled-DNA supplementation. As ¹³C and ¹⁵N are naturally present in the samples, the ¹³C/¹⁵N basal concentration was used as reference. Comparisons were made using one-sided ANOVA with Tukey’s test for multiple comparisons; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01. Data are shown as mean ± SD of three independent experiments (n = 3). Source data are provided as a Source Data file.