Acknowledgements

Funding for J.vL. by German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF—Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, project number: 031A123), Central SME Innovation Programme (ZIM, project number 16KN073233) and for L.‐E.M. by DFG (grant number: KR 2491/11‐1) is gratefully acknowledged. This research project was cofunded by the Leibniz ScienceCampus Phosphorus Research Rostock. The entire research group of Prof. Dr. Hubert Bahl (Department of Microbiology, University of Rostock) is also gratefully acknowledged for their ongoing support and useful discussions. The authors thank Sandra Diederich and Rike Thomsen for their technical and experimental support. The authors also thank Katrin Feest, who was responsible for the language editing.