Relationships between <i>sarA, agr</i>, protease production and biofilm formation.

<p>Biofilm formation and the production of extracellular proteases was assessed in the indicated wild-type (WT) strains and their isogenic <i>sarA</i> (S), <i>agr</i> (A), and <i>sarA/agr</i> (SA) mutants with and without complementation with a functional copy of <i>sarA</i> (S^C). Results for biofilm assay (top) are shown as the mean ± the standard deviation of 6 replicate samples. Statistical analysis confirmed a significant difference between the RN6390 <i>agr</i> and <i>sarA</i>-complemented RN6390 <i>sarA</i>/<i>agr</i> mutants and all other RN6390 derivative and between the <i>sarA</i> and <i>sarA/agr</i> mutants and their <i>sarA</i>-complemented derivatives in both UAMS-1 and UAMS-1782. No significant differences were observed the <i>sarA</i>-complemented derivatives of UAMS-1 or UAMS-1782 and their respective parent strains.