Figure 1.

Inhibition assay. Lawn of a Pseudomonas aeruginosa natural isolate growing on the surface of an agar plate. Spots of pyocin containing cell free extract from a laboratory strain of P. aeruginosa PA01 were applied on the lawn at different dilutions. The formation of clear zones is indicative of killing of the clinical isolate. The highest dilution of cell free extract (thus containing the lowest concentration of toxin) that inhibits the clinical isolate is a measure of potency of the toxin. The inhibition score is the inverse of the highest dilution that inhibits growth of the clinical isolate. In this example, the spot marked A is non-diluted cell free extract; spots B to F are serial 3-fold dilutions. The inverse of the dilution factor of dilution D would be the inhibition score.