FIG. 2.

Plastic adherence (biofilm assay). Staphylococcal strains were assessed for their abilities to adhere to the plastic, as visualized by safranin staining. Bars represent means, and error bars represent the standard errors of the means for five separate measurements. Significant differences in adherence were noted between all parental strains and isogenic mutants, as well as between S. carnosus and S. aureus strains with the ica locus in plasmid pCN27 and control strains with plasmids lacking the ica locus (∗, P ≤ 0.0001 [t tests for comparison with isogenic strain; ∗∗, P < 0.001 [ANOVA and Fisher PLSD for pairwise comparisons with strain S. epidermidis M187]).