Fig. 1.

Minimum exposure time needed for V. fischeri strains to initiate a successful colonization. Squids were exposed to each bacterial strain for different periods of time, then rinsed, and colonized animals identified by their production of bioluminescence after 24 h. Strains in bold are D strains, whereas the others are S strains. The X-axis indicates the percentage of squid colonized after a given length of exposure. Strains are ranked (top to bottom) based on the minimum amount of exposure needed to colonize 50% of the animals. For each condition, between 25 and 31 animals were measured in three replicates. Error bars indicate 95% confidence intervals