Table 1: Bacterial strains and culture media used in this study.

Bacterial Strain Relevant Characteristics Culture Medium Used in this Work Purpose
Klebsiella variicola T29A Isolated from sugar cane [48], highly tolerant to desiccation and promoter of plant growth [47] MacConkey (casein peptone 1.5 g/L, gelatin peptone 17 g/L, meat peptone 1.5 g/L, lactose 10 g/L, bile salts 1.5 g/L, Sodium Chloride 5 g/L, neutral red 0.03 g/L, crystal violet 0.001 g/L, agar 13.5 g/L) Selection medium
MESMA (glucose 2.7 g/L, mannitol 1.8 g/L, yeast extract 2.7 g/L, MES 4.4 g/L, KH2PO4 0.65 g/L, K2HPO4 4.8 g/L) [50] Growth medium for desiccation assays
MM9-Citrate [51] Medium used in random mutagenesis assays
Escherichia coli CC118 λpir Strain (λpir +), donor of the pUT mini-Tn5Km plasmid. The plasmid only self-replicates in the presence of the λpir protein and is suicidal in other genetic backgrounds. LB (casein peptone 10 g/L, yeast extract 5 g/L and NaCl 10 g/L) -kanamycin containing 80 μg/mL of antibiotic (LB-Km80) [52] Medium used in random mutagenesis assays
Escherichia coli RK600 Helper strain, contains plasmid RK600, tra + LB-chloramphenicol (LB-Cm30) The medium used in random mutagenesis assays
Klebsiella variicola T29A::mini-Tn5Km (from mutant 1 to 8974) Mutants that acquired the mini-Tn5Km transposon in some region of its genome MM9-Citrato-Km80 The medium used for the selection of mutants that acquire the mini-Tn5Km transposon