Lines 316–317: We did not notice this point. Polysaccharide chain may not be very long. Many of the products of the hps gene cluster encode glycosyltransferases and pseudopilins, which are, respectively, involved in the synthesis and secretion of the slime. The secretion of slime is likely mediated by some molecular machinery that is otherwise involved in type II secretion/motility machinery. Reference 24 was added.
A model is presented to describe how the rotation of the filament causes left-handed sliding for the portion of the filament not encased in a slime sheath, which leads to formation of counter-clockwise spirals, the predominant macroscopic feature of colonies noted.