Relative survival of vegetative cells and spores within an intact and disrupted biofilm exposed to oxygen stress.

<p>The ability of a biofilm to protect against oxygen stress was assessed in three day old biofilms exposed to oxygen stress for 24 hours, alongside oxygen stress disrupted biofilms (vortexed). The survival is expressed as cfu/ml ×10⁴. Regression analysis was performed to determine if there were any significant differences in total cell counts between the wild-type, <i>spo0A</i> mutant and complement for the control group, intact biofilms and the disrupted biofilms (p<0.05 indicated with *). Additional regression analyses were performed to determine whether there were significant differences in the number of vegetative cells (∼) and spores (∧) in the intact and disrupted biofilms compared to the untreated controls (<i>p</i><0.05). Finally analysis was performed to determine whether the numbers of vegetative cells (∼) and spores (∧) were significantly altered in the disrupted biofilm compared to the intact biofilm (<i>p</i><0.05).