Fig. 2: Overexpression of TssM leads to LPPS formation.

a Still Images (30 ×30 µm) of contractile VipA-sfGFP ΔtssM strain complemented with pTssM plasmid (ΔtssM/pTssM) without ((−) Ara, left) or with 0.1% L-arabinose induction ((+)Ara, right). b Relative survival of E. coli prey after co-incubation with parental (WT) or ΔtssM killer cells carrying pBAD plasmid, empty (p) or expressing tssM (pTssM). One-way ANOVA with Sidak’s multiple comparisons test comparing each strain to the parental strain carrying the same plasmid, ***p < 0.001; ns, not significant. Data points represent independent experiments (n = 3). Error bars indicate the mean value ± SD of three biological replicates. c Box plot shows sheath length, in µm, measured in non-contractile parental and ΔtssM strain and in the same strains overexpressing pTssM plasmid after induction with 0.4% L-arabinose. Whiskers show Min to Max values and boxes indicate median and extend from the 25th to 75th percentiles. Each data point represents a sheath, n is indicated in graph for each strain. Y axis shows Log2 scale. Two-tailed Mann–Whitney test comparing each strain with and without overexpression of TssM was performed (p < 0.001). d Images of non-contractile VipA-N3-sfGFP parental and ΔtssM strain (Top) and strains with pTssM plasmid overexpression (Bottom). In (a, d) images are representative of at least three independent experiments, insets (3.2 × 3.2 µm) in bottom left correspond to area in white boxes. Scale bars, 5 µm. GFP channel is shown in grayscale.