3.8 Roles of aphC and sodA in surfactin production and biofilm formation
The aphC and sodA gene knockout strains were constructed, respectively (Fig. S3 in supplementary materials). Deletion ofaphC and sodA had no significant influence on the cell growth, as well as the surfactin production at most of time points except for 48 h. At this time point, ΔsodA showed a significant decrease of surfactin production compared to WH1. The colony morphology and biofilm formation in ΔaphC and ΔsodA were both similar to WH1 (Fig. S4 in supplementary materials).