mohammad tabish ahmed - eTheses Repository - University of ...

Chapter 6
As the group in Pittsburgh were able to correctly identify the control strains and obtained
expected results, the data from the remaining constructs was analysed. The results that were
obtained after 5 days incubation were as expected. According to their analysis, strain D
(Mscpn60.2) did not show any major signs of biofilm formation (fig 6.2d); while strains E
(Mscpn60.3) and F (EcgroEL) showed partial complementation, i.e. the phenotypic biofilm
results were in between the positive and negative controls (fig 6.2e and fig 6.2f).
Interestingly, and consistent with the hypothesis, they were also able to show that
MtbCpn60.1 (in strain G), was able to complement in the knockout strain and produce a
mature biofilm similar to that of Mscpn60.1 (in strain C) (fig 6.2g). This confirmed the
original hypothesis that MtbCpn60.1 can substitute for the loss of endogenous MsCpn60.1 in
M. smegmatis. It should be noted however that visually the complemented strains do not
produce as much biofilm as the original strain (strain A). However, upon further inspection it
was found that the mass of the biofilm was roughly the same for the complemented strains
and the wild type while being lower for the non complemented strains (fig 6.3). Interestingly,
the mass of the biofilm from the strain carrying the EcgroEL gene was also as good as that of
WT.
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