FIG. 3.

Initial adhesion to a polystyrene surface. Equal numbers of bacteria were incubated in polystyrene microtiter plates for 30 min. Adhering bacteria were visualized with safranin and quantified using a microtiter plate reader. The mean values and standard deviations of at least six wells from a representative experiment are shown. The mean value obtained for the wild-type strain was defined as 100%. Bars: 1, S. aureus ATCC 35556 wild type; 2, icaADBC mutant; 3, dltA mutant; 4, dltA mutant complemented with plasmid pRBdlt1; 5, S. carnosus TM300.