Figure 1.

KMnO₄ reacts strongly with PNAG and protein but weakly with Psl, DNA, dextran or alginate. (A) KMnO₄ reacting with 4-day-old P. aeruginosa WT and mutant strains overexpressing psl, pel or both from arabinose-inducible P_BAD promoter. (B) Absorbance spectra (top) for each individual EPS component-KMnO₄ reaction with digital images (below) of individual EPS components solubilized in water and stained with KMnO₄ in cuvettes (60 min). (C) Percent transmission of light of individual EPS component-KMnO₄ as a function of absorbance at 525 nm. Data points and columns in B and C (respectively) represent the means and error bars represent the standard error.