Fig. 2.
Clumps of coagulase producers and nonproducers coaggregate within clots. WLM inoculated with LAC and Δcoa or ΔcoaΔvwbp visualized by confocal fluorescence microscopy. (A) Overlays of representative Z stacks from the cocultures visualized: LACgfp (green) & Δcoa (blue); LACgfp (green) & ΔcoaΔvwbp (blue). See SI Appendix, Figs. S3–S7 for reverse controls Δcoagfp (green) & LAC (blue). Images reveal clumps of both producers and nonproducers, interspersed throughout the fibrous host derived matrix (red). (Scale bars: 50 μm.) (B) Occupancy of nonproducers (Δcoa or ΔcoaΔvwbp) is plotted as a function of distance away from producers (LAC). Occupancy is defined as the fraction of nonproducers at a certain distance normalized to the fraction of nonproducers in the entire image, such that an image with randomly distributed pixels would have an occupancy of one at any distance (log2 = 0). Continuous lines represent means; shaded regions represent 95% confidence intervals. LACgfp & Δcoa (n = 6); LACgfp & ΔcoaΔvwbp (n = 6).