FIG. 1.

Adherence of Vibrio vulnificus to various components of the extracellular matrix. Wild-type V. vulnificus cells (1 × 10⁵) were added to a multiwell plate coated with one of three extracellular matrix proteins at a concentration of 100 μg ml⁻¹ and incubated for 10 min. Assay of binding of V. vulnificus to each component was performed eight times. The percentages of bacterial cells that adhered to wells coated with BSA (an open bar), fibronectin (a black bar), collagen (a hatched bar), or laminin (a crosschecked bar) were determined by plating the eluted bacteria onto LBS agar. Error bars represent the means ± standard deviations from three independent experiments. The asterisk indicates a binding level that was significantly different from that of the BSA-coated control by Student's t test.