FIG 6.

Rothia inhibit M. catarrhalis in respiratory epithelial cell culture. The apical surfaces of respiratory epithelial cell cultures were first colonized with R. aeria strain RSM41, R. dentocariosa strain RSM522, or R. similmucilaginosa strain RSM42 before subsequent infection with M. catarrhalis O35E. After 1 day of infection, the epithelial cells were collected and lysed, and the CFU equivalents (CFUe) of M. catarrhalis in each sample were quantified using quantitative PCR. Each point represents a result from a separate experiment. Horizontal black bars represent the mean abundance of M. catarrhalis for each treatment. Asterisks (*) indicate comparisons with significant difference (α = 0.05) after performing Tukey’s honestly significant difference (HSD) tests.