Adherence of the wild-type S. aureus strain SH1000 and its derivative msr mutant cells to A549 human lung epithelial cells.

A total of 5X10⁵ bacterial cells were used in these assays. The left light bar in each panel represents the ratios of the msr mutant relative to wild-type SH1000 in the mixture used to infect the A549 cells. The right dark bar in each panel represents the ratios of the msr mutant in the mixture that adhered to the A549 cells after 1 h of incubation. Values indicate the average of three independent experiments ± standard deviation (* significant at p≤.05).