Fig. 5. Pili confer resistance to grazing.

Growth curves (top panel) and culture images (bottom panel) of wild-type (WT; solid lines) and pili mutant (Δpili; dashed lines) cultures of Synechococcus sp. WH7803 incubated in the absence (control; black lines) and presence of two different grazers i.e. Uronema (blue lines) and Cafeteria (green lines). Cultures were subjected to constant shaking to keep the wild-type and pili mutant in planktonic form. Data are presented as mean values ± standard deviation from three culture replicates. Images represent one of three culture replicates.