Fig. 4: In vitro antibiofilm mechanism.

Bacterial transcriptomics analysis. GO term (a) and KEGG enrichment (b) analysis of downregulated genes in bacteria between the Control and MnP + US groups. Heat map analysis of differentially expressed genes about QS system (c), cytosolic membrane integrity (d), antioxidant proteases (e), Mn ion homeostasis (f) between the Control and MnP + US groups. g Relative gene expression of AgrA and AgrB. n = 3 independent experiments; means ± SDs. n.s., not significant; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, and ****p < 0.0001 using two-tailed Student’s t tests. h BCA leakage and ONPG test of MRSA biofilm. n = 3 independent experiments; means ± SDs. n.s., not significant; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, and ****p < 0.0001 using two-tailed Student’s t tests. i Antioxidant capacity evaluation, including GPx activity, SOD activity, and ROS levels in biofilms. n = 3 independent experiments; means ± SDs. n.s., not significant; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, and ****p < 0.0001 using two-tailed Student’s t tests. j TEM image of MRSA treated by MnP + US with quantitative analysis. Scale bar, 500 nm. k Elemental mapping of the Mn ion with quantitative analysis. Scale bar, 100 nm. n = 3 independent experiments; means ± SDs. n.s., not significant; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, and ****p < 0.0001 using two-tailed Student’s t tests. l Relative gene expression of MntH, MntABC, and MntE. n = 3 independent experiments; means ± SDs. n.s., not significant; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, and ****p < 0.0001 using two-tailed Student’s t tests. m Schematic of Mn ion overabundance. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.