Fig 3.
Survival of Salmonella strains. Salmonella strains at a concentration of ∼2 × 109 CFU/ml were dehydrated at ambient temperature for 22 h or kept wet in SDDW under similar conditions (control). Survival is expressed as a percentage of viable cells relative to the WT strain (considered 100%) at 22 h. The viable count of the WT in SDDW (control) remained constant for 22 h, while the count of dehydrated WT cells was usually ∼1 × 109 CFU/ml. The data represent the mean percentage of survival in three independent experiments, each performed in triplicates on three separate days. Error bars denote the standard deviations of the means (n = 9). Asterisks indicate a significant difference (P < 0.05) compared to the WT strain.