Figure 5. SasG-II-mediated adhesion is mediated by the lectin subdomain and may bind the same ligand as Aap and SasG-I.

(A) MRSA MW2 (SasG-II) was tested for adhesion to healthy human corneocytes after pre-incubation/blocking with 5 µM of purified lectins. MRSA MW2 ∆sasG was used as a negative control strain. **P=0.0019. (C) SasG-II-expressing S. carnosus-sasG_MW2 was tested for adhesion to healthy human corneocytes after pre-incubation/blocking with 5 µM of purified lectins. S. carnosus-pALC2073 EV was used as a negative control strain. S. epidermidis ∆ica was tested for adhesion to corneocytes following pre-incubation/blocking with 100 µg/mL of purified full-length or A-domain SasG-II. S. epidermidis ∆ica ∆aap was used as a negative control strain. (G) SasG-I-expressing S. carnosus-sasG_COL was tested for adhesion to healthy human corneocytes after pre-incubation/blocking with 100 µg/mL of purified full-length or A-domain SasG-II. S. carnosus-pALC2073 EV was used as a negative control strain. **P=0.0091. (B, D, F, H) Representative bright-field (representing corneocytes) and green-channel (representing GFP-expressing bacteria) overlay microscopy images of experimental groups tested in Panels A, C, E, and G, respectively. (All panels) The percent area of adhesion in 10 images from three independent experiments (n = 30) was measured with Fiji ImageJ and analyzed in GraphPad Prism. Statistical significance was analyzed using ordinary one-way ANOVA (***P=0.0002; ****P<0.0001).