Fig. 1

Mutation of gdpS induces S. epidermidis to enter into a VBNC state after cryopreservation. The cryopreserved S. epidermidis strains were thawed, inoculated directly into liquid TSB medium (A) at a dilution of 1:100, and then incubated with agitation at 37 °C for over 16 h. Meanwhile, the thawed cultures and their corresponding dilutions were spotted onto TSB agar plate (B) and Columbia blood agar plate (C) respectively, and cultivated at 37 °C for 24 h. WT: the wild type strain, ΔgdpS: the gdpS mutant strain, C-gdpS: the gdpS mutant strain complemented with the native gdpS gene, C-pCN: the gdpS mutant strain complemented with the empty vector pCNcat. The experiment was repeated at least three times, and a representative figure is shown