Figure 5

Adherence of S. aureus Newman complemented mutants grown in TSB and iron restricted conditions to desquamated nasal epithelial cells. The ability of mutants of strain Newman carrying complementing pCU1 plasmids carrying surface protein genes to adhere to desquamated nasal epithelial cells was tested. Strains Newman clfA, Newman clfA isdA clfB sdrCDE, Newman clfA isdA clfB sdrCDE (pCU1), Newman clfA isdA clfB sdrCDE (pCU1clfB⁺), Newman clfA isdA clfB sdrCDE (pCU1sdrC⁺), Newman clfA isdA clfB sdrCDE (pCU1sdrD⁺), Newman clfA isdA clfB sdrCDE (pCU1sdrE⁺),) Newman clfA isdA clfB sdrCDE (pCU1isdAB⁺) and Newman clfA isdA clfB sdrCDE (pCU1isdB⁺) grown to the exponential phase in (A) TSB and to the stationary phase in (B) RPMI were tested for adherence. Counts represent the number of bacterial cells adhering to 100 squamous cells. Results are expressed as the mean of triplicate experiments +/- standard deviations.