Fig. 6: Heightened levels of MSHA retraction increases detachment from the surface, and loss of pilT decreases c-di-GMP levels in surface-attached cells.

a Proportion of cells that either divide on the surface or detach from the surface. The total number of cells analyzed per strain was; WT n = 512, Δ2PDE n = 65, Δ4DGC n = 145, ΔpilT n = 45. The proportions are statistically significantly different among the strains according to the χ² test p ≤ 0.0001. b Measurement of c-di-GMP levels in single cells inside a flow cell using the biosensor. Lines indicate the median RFI values per time point, and the shaded areas represent the 95% confidence intervals obtained from the bootstrap sampling distribution of the median RFI values. Time 0 h corresponds roughly to when cells initially encounter the surface of the flow cell. c Plot of the probability of c-di-GMP increase, calculated by comparing the bootstrap sampling distributions of the median RFI values between every time point (I_t) and the first (I₁). C-di-GMP is determined to be increasing if I_t / I₁ ≥ 1.05.