We recently described adhesion to and invasion of bovine mammary gland cells by Staphylococcus aureus in vitro. Here, we show that the levels of adhesion and invasion are dependent on the bacterial growth phase and are controlled by the agr locus. Incubation of exponential growth phase cells of S. aureus with mammary gland cells resulted in bacterial cell clumping. Strains of S. aureus deficient in expression of the fibronectin binding proteins (FnBPA and FnBPB) failed to clump and their ability to adhere to and to invade the bovine mammary gland cells is strongly reduced. This indicates that the fibronectin binding proteins are essential for S. aureus adhesion to and invasion of bovine mammary gland cells. ß