microfuge tubes and snap frozen in liquid nitrogen and were stored at ─80 ̊C. Protein estimation was performed simultaneously with one of these aliquots

The strains were grown to stationary phase in 500 ml LB supplemented with ampicillin (100 μg/ml) overnight. Cells were pelleted at 2100g for 30 min at 4 ̊C and dissolved in 5 ml of 1X PBS with 2X protease inhibitor and 3 mM DTT. Cells were lysed using French Press at 1500 psi for three cycles. The lysed cells were pelleted at 20,000g for 45 min at 4 ̊C. Clear supernatant was collected in sterile 2 ml

For routine plasmid transformations, where high efficiency is not required, the following method which is a modification of that described by Sambrook and Russell (2001) was used. An overnight culture of the recipient strain was subcultured in fresh LB and grown till mid-exponential phase. The culture was chilled on ice for 15 min, and the steps hereafter were done on ice or at 4°C. The culture was centrifuged, and the pellet was resuspended in one third volume of cold 0.1 M CaCl2. After 15 min incubation on ice, the cells were again recovered by centrifugation, and resuspended in one tenth volume of cold 0.1 M CaCl2. The suspension (0.1 ml) was incubated on ice for 1 h after which DNA was added (~10-100 ng of DNA in less than 10 μl volume). The mixture was again incubated on ice for 30 min, and then heat shocked for 90 seconds at 42°C. Immediately 0.9 ml of LB broth was added to the tube and incubated at 37°C for 45 min for phenotypic expression of the antibiotic marker before being plated on selective medium at various dilutions. A negative control tube (with no plasmid DNA addition) was also routinely included in each of the experiments

and the aqueous phase transferred to a fresh tube. The aqueous phase was further extracted successively, first with phenol:chloroform:isoamyl alcohol (25:24:1) and then with chloroform:isoamyl alcohol (24:1). DNA was precipitated from the clear supernatant by the addition of 0.6 volumes of isopropanol. The chromosomal DNA was either spooled out or pelleted at this stage, washed with 70% ethanol, air-dried, and dissolved in suitable volume of TE buffer

The method as described in the manual Current Protocols in Molecular Biology was followed for preparation of chromosomal DNA. Cells from 1.5 ml stationary phase culture were recovered by centrifugation and resuspended in 567 μl of TE buffer. To this, 30 μl of 10% SDS, and 3 μl of proteinase K (20 mg/ml) were added in that order and the cell suspension mixed and incubated at 37°C for 1 h. Next, when the suspension looked cleared, 100 μl of 5 M NaCl was added, thoroughly mixed, followed by the addition of 80 μl of CTAB/NaCl (10% cetyltrimethylammonium bromide in 7 M NaCl) and vigorous mixing (by inverting the microfuge tube). The suspension was incubated at 65°C for 10 min, brought to room temperature, extracted with an equal volume of chloroform-isoamyl alcohol (24:1 v/v)

Extraction of chromosomal DNA from bacterial cells

For SEM, C. glabratacells were fixed for 24 h in 2.5% glutaraldehyde in phosphate buffer (0.1 M, pH 7.2) at 4 ̊C, post-fixed in 2% aqueous osmium tetroxide for 4 h and dehydrated. After drying to critical point, mounted samples were coated with a thin layer of gold for 3 min using an automated sputter coater and visualized by SEM (JEOL-JSM 5600)