Fig. 1.

Impact of PSMs and Agr on the structuring of static S. aureus biofilms. Static biofilms were grown in eight-well chambered coverglass plates for 48 h. (A–D) Biofilm parameters were measured in at least 20 randomly chosen biofilm CLSM images of the same extension. Horizontal bars depict the mean. Statistical analysis is by t tests vs. the corresponding values of the WT samples, which were grown and measured separately for every mutant comparison. Only one WT analysis is shown for brevity; however, statistical analysis was performed vs. the corresponding WT samples grown in parallel, which were very similar in all cases. ****P < 0.0001. Values for 24-h biofilms were also measured, and differences were similar. (E) Example 48-h CLSM biofilm images. Extensions and scales are the same in every image (total x extension, 230 μm; total y extension, 230 μm).