The dicBF locus is conserved in E. coli species in different prophages. The dicBF locus is conserved in E. coli species in different prophages. The dicF sequences that were >99% identical among different E. coli species were obtained from NCBI. Nucleotide sequences 5 kb up- and downstream of dicF were then collected and aligned using Progressive Mauve. Open reading frames with sequence identity of >60% (verified by BLASTn) are indicated using the same colors in all prophages. The dicBF operon in MG1655 is arranged as follows: ydfA (in red), ydfB (in yellow), ydfC (in purple), dicF (indicated by a black line), dicB (in blue), and ydfD (in dark green). Genes that were not conserved are shown in white. Divya Balasubramanian et al. mSystems 2016; doi:10.1128/mSystems.00021-15