Figure 3.

Biofilm formation by anthranilate pathway mutants. The capacity of the mutants to form biofilm was assayed by adhesion on 96-well microtiter plates. All transposon mutants and the PAO1 reference strain were provided by the University of Washington. Identity of each mutant is indicated below the histogram (http://www.gs.washington.edu/labs/manoil/libraryindex.htm) and genes are indicated by their PA numbers (http://www.pseudomonas.com). Biofilm quantities were assayed by crystal violet coloration (see Materials and Methods). According to a Wilcoxon test, all 21 mutants related to anthranilate degradation statistically produced less biofilm than PAO1 (P < 0.05; n = 6). Values are mean ± SEM of three biological replicates, each tested twice. 100% corresponds to the biofilm-formation ability of the PAO1 reference strain.