Overnight cultures of S. aureus 8325–4 were diluted 1:50 in TSB and allowed to grow to OD600 of 0.2 1 μCi/ml (37MBq) of [methyl-3H] thymidine was added to the culture. After 10 min of incubation at 37°C, LP5 was added at 1 × MIC and 5 × MIC. Samples of 500 μl were removed immediately before addition of LP5 (0 min) and at 5, 10, 20 and 30 min after addition of LP5 and added to 2 volume of 99.9% ice cold EtOH and 0.1 volume of 3M sodium acetate (NaAc) pH 5.5 in order to precipitate macromolecules. After overnight precipitation at −20°C samples were collected by centrifugation (12000 rpm, 10 min) and washed twice in 1 ml of ice cold 70% EtOH. Samples were resuspended in 100 μl of milliQ water and added to 4 ml scintillation vials with EcoscintA liquid scintillation cocktail, and counts were obtained in a Beckman scintillation counter for 5 min for each sample using the tritium program. The reported results are from three independent experiments.