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. 2012 Jan 12;8(1):e1002434. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1002434

Figure 5. Degradation of fibrin-structures in later growth phases.

Figure 5

At later time points (here: 43 h after inoculation) single S. aureus Newman microcolonies (green arrowhead) started massive growth and dispersal by degradation of fibrin structures (A). Also comparatively small microcolonies are able to switch to this mode (blue arrowhead). A2 is a magnification of the inset in A1. An agr mutant is significantly less prone to degrade fibrin structures compared to the wildtype (B). The percentage of dispersing colonies was evaluated after 3 days by counting the respective microcolonies in a set of n independent wells (containing between 60 and 120 microcolonies per counted area, wt n = 11, agr n = 12, p<0.0001). Similar observations were made with CA-MRSA strain USA300 (C). A time lapse video of the lower left area in C is shown in Video S2. Scale bar sizes: A 150 µm, B 75 µm, C 50 µm.