FIG. 5.

Contribution of ECP to EPEC adherence compared with the contributions of other adhesins. The levels of adherence to HT-29 cells of wild-type and mutant strains were determined by plating serial dilutions of adhering bacteria. The adherence experiments were repeated at least three times in triplicate on separate days, and the bars indicate the means of the averages of the results obtained in the three experiments performed. The error bars indicate the standard deviations for the averages of all the results obtained in the three experiments performed. The levels of adherence and the P values are indicated below the graph. A statistical analysis was done using a paired Student t test. *, statistically significant compared with the wild-type strain; **, statistically significant compared with the wild-type strain and the parental strain.