Figure 5

Protective effect of EPS on resistance to antimicrobials, heat and acid shock. The wild type (▲), epsC ^D88N (■) or ΔepsE (●) strains were grown in the presence of 2 μg ml⁻¹ ampicillin (A), 1 μg ml⁻¹ tetracycline (B), 0.25 μg ml⁻¹ nisin (C) or 0.3% bile salts (D) or were exposed to 60°C (light grey) or 50°C (dark grey) for 5 min or pH 2 (black) for 90 min (E); bars represent percentage survival, *, p < 0.05.