<p><i>In vitro</i> mucus-binding assays with normalized (OD600 = 0.5) cultures of recombinant WT (GRS1189) and SpaF pilin-deleted (GRS1126) SpaFED-piliated lactococci, and as well with the vectorless (GRS71) and empty vector (GRS1052) <i>L. lactis</i> NZ900 control strains, were carried out as described in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0113922#s4" target="_blank">Materials and Methods</a>. Triplicate measurements were done for each sample, with three independent experiments having been performed. The standard error of mean (SEM) is shown as error bars. Pairwise differences between the mucus adhesion data for GRS1189 or GRS1226 cells and that for GRS71 cells are deemed extremely significant (<i>P</i>≤0.0001).</p
