Table 1. Total and heat resistant (Heat^R) cell counts (CFU/ml) for the wild type strain (630Δerm) and congenic sigF, sigE, sigG and sigK mutants in SM.

Time (h)	630Δerm		sigF		sigE		sigG		sigK
	Total	HeatR	Total	HeatR	Total	HeatR	Total	HeatR	Total	HeatR
24	7.3×107±1.6×107	3.1×105±5.6×104	2.3×108±6.4×107	0	9.6×107±7.2×107	0	9.0×107±4.5×107	0	4.4×107±2.7×107	0
48	4.2×107±8.5×106	2.4×106±3.1×105	7.9×107±6.3×107	0	1.3×107±7.8×107	0	9.6×106±4.5×106	0	1.2×107±2.9×106	2.1×102±3.6×101
72	2.2.×107±2.9×106	1.5×107±6.8×106	4.3×107±2.1×107	0	7.1×106±2.8×106	0	3.0×106±3.9×106	0	6.1×106±4.3×107	1.7×103±6.0×102

Note: values represent the average±SD of three independent experiments.