Figure 1. Inhibition of S. aureus by C18 unsaturated fatty acids.

A Graph showing percentage survival of wild-type strains of S. aureus when these strains were incubated on BHI plates containing 0, 0.25, 0.5 and 1 mM linoleic acid. The strains analysed were SH1000 (closed box), MRSA252 (closed triangle), MSSA476 (open box) and N315 (open circle). This assay was performed in triplicate and is representative of multiple experiments. B Growth of a 0.5% (vol/vol) inoculum of MRSA252 in 100 ml BHI containing 0 mM fatty acid (closed triangle), 0.01 mM oleic acid (cross) or 0.01 mM linoleic acid (open box) at 37°C with shaking at 250 rpm. RNA was extracted from these cells at an OD₆₀₀ of 3 and analysed in microarray experiments as the growth exposure conditions. C Growth of a 0.5% (vol/vol) inoculum of MRSA252 in 100 ml BHI at 37°C with shaking at 250 rpm with (open box) or without (closed triangle) the addition of 0.1 mM linoleic acid at an OD₆₀₀ of 3. RNA was extracted from these cells 20 min post-exposure and analysed in microarray experiments as the challenge conditions. The growth curves shown in B and C were performed in biological triplicate. The error bars shown in graphs B and C correspond to standard errors of the mean.