Figure 3

ZCF32 negatively regulates biofilm formation by repressing adhesion, yeast to hyphae transition and dispersion.
(A) The adhesion assay was carried out by crystal violet staining of the yeast cells adhered to the bottom of the polystyrene plate. Results from three independent experiments were considered for the statistical analysis. Statistical significance (p-value) was calculated with a Student’s one-tailed paired t-test and is represented by the asterisks (*p value ≤ 0.02, **p-value ≤ 0.002). (B) Biofilms were grown in vitro on human urinary catheter till 6 h (early biofilm) to score for hyphae formation. Catheter pieces with biofilms formed by SC5314, YPK102 and YPK103 strains were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Representative images of each strain are shown. Scale bar (white line) 20 μm. C) To study the dispersion ability of different strains, the presence of yeast cells on the surface of 48 h old biofilm (mature biofilm) was scored. Surface topographies of biofilms formed by SC5314, YPK102 and YPK103 strains were analyzed by SEM. Scale bar (white line) 20 μm.