In the present study, the microarray results showed that MOL significantly inhibited cidA expression and significantly induced lrgAB expression, which is consistent with the phenotype of autolysis inhibition upon exposure to MOL. In the aforementioned results, MOL treatment also inhibited the expression of other autolysis-associated genes as follows: the autolysin genes atl, sle1, lytM and lytN; the probable ATL autolysin transcription regulator SA0904; the endopeptidase resistance factor eprH; the amino-terminal signal sequence group genes isaA , sceD , ssaA , SA0620, SA2097 and SA2353; and sspABC, scpAB, htrA, fmtC and aur. In addition, MOL treatment inhibited the expression of major cell wall biosynthesis genes, including pgcA, gtaB, fmhA, lytH, ALK inhibitor SA2354, tcaB drp35, rsbU, and purABCKERQ. Simultaneously, MOL treatment also increased the expression of the negative regulators of autolysis arlR and sarA. As mentioned above, MOL diminished the amounts of eDNA from S. aureus in a dose-dependent manner, with MOL at concentration of more than the MBIC almost completely eliminating eDNA from the tested strains. Thus, we concluded that the phenotype of biofilm inhibition by MOL treatment might be due to an abolishment or reduction of genomic DNA release, leading to a decreased biofilm development. Noteworthily, there is a significant effect of MOL at concentarion of more than the MIC on planktonic growth, as showed in Figure 1, we presume the decrease in planktonic cells is due to inhibition of proper peptidoglycan processing, although MOL at this concentarion repressed biofilm development due to loss of eDNA. Moreover, comparing our microarray results for the genes involved in biofilm production with those identified in previous reports , we found that MOL widely inhibited or reversed the expression of genes involved in biofilms, suggesting that MOL may also directly inhibit biofilm formation. An important component of many S. epidermidis biofilms is the polysaccharide intercellular adhesin PIA, also called polymeric N-acetylglucosamine , which is synthesized by the icaADBC-encoded proteins. PIA is also produced by S. aureus, and the ica operon appears to be present in virtually all S. aureus XAV939 biological activity strains . Likewise, eDNA is found in S. aureus biofilms and contributes to the strength of the biofilm matrix . In this study, the microarray results showed that icaB was not significantly affected upon exposure to MOL, whereas icaR, a negative regulator of icaADBC, was significantly induced 3.6-fold by MOL. Because icaACD genes were not printed on the microarray, we assayed the expression of these genes by real-time RT-PCR and showed that these genes were also not significantly regulated by exposure to MOL.