Fig. 5

Immunoblotting analysis of fermented milk after first (a) and second passage (b) using anti-SpaA serum. Single L. rhamnosus colonies were randomly picked from 2-day old MRS agar plates and analyzed by immunoblotting using anti-SpaA polyclonal antibodies. In a 70 out of 72 colonies tested were pilus positive (97.2 %). In b 101 out of 108 colonies tested were pilus positive (93.5 %). Note: a third immunoblotting (not shown in Fig. 5) was performed for sample 2b and included in the piliation percentage calculation above. Piliation phenotype of some colonies tested was further confirmed by PCR analysis as described in the “Methods”