FIGURE 3.

Cell association of P. freudenreichii (PF) and P. shermanii (PS) on BATCs. BATCs were pre-exposed to 10⁹ CFU ml⁻¹ of PF or PS for 2 h at 37°C under 5% CO₂. The adherence of the strains to BATCs (cell association) was enumerated after plating cell homogenates on MRS agar plates and incubating at 37°C for 24 h (n = 6; ^a-bP < 0.05). Propionibacterium counts were represented as log₁₀ CFU ml⁻¹ ± standard error.