Competence development rate of the cell population is limited by CSP availability.

<p>Competence was monitored for the R895 strain inoculated at 50 fold (brown circles, 40: wt) or 2000 fold (orange circles, 1: wt) dilutions of the same pre-culture. The 2000-fold dilution was repeated with the addition of 100 ng/ml of synthetic CSP at the time is pointed by a green arrow (green squares, 1: wt + CSP). RLU and OD readings were recorded in a LucyI luminometer every 6 min (see <a href="http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1006113#sec016" target="_blank">M.&M</a>). Competence development rate and correlation coefficient R² are presented for each assay.