Fig. 2.

DvhG can cleave DvhA-hlx-swap protein and diminish biofilm formation. The gene encoding His-tagged DvhG and its variants were cloned in an arabinose inducible promoter and transformed into Pf0-1 ΔlapGΔlapDdvhA-hlx-swap strain. The protease was induced with 0.2% arabinose. (A) Biofilm formed in K10T medium at 24 h in the presence or absence of arabinose with no vector, empty vector (EV), or a plasmid expressing full-length DvhG, DvhG lacking the predicted transmembrane helix domain (DvhGΔTM) or DvhG with mutated catalytic residue (C317A). (B) Quantification of DvhG and the mutated protein levels normalized to total protein loaded. Bars and error bars represent mean and SEM for three biological replicates. Representative western blot images are displayed underneath the bar plot corresponding to the DvhG variants. (C) Cell surface levels of DvhA-hlx-swap in the presence of 0.2% arabinose. (D) DvhA-hlx-swap levels in the culture supernatants at 24 h in the presence of 0.2% arabinose. Statistical analysis was performed using one-way ANOVA corrected for multiple comparisons (ns, P > 0.05; *P ≤ 0.05; **P ≤ 0.01; ***P ≤ 0.001; ****P ≤ 0.0001).