FIG 5.

Δtli mutants fail to deploy active Tle. (A) ECL Δtli mutants do not exhibit hyper-permeability. The indicated strains were grown on LB-agar supplemented with X-gluc. Where indicated, strains carried an empty vector or were complemented with plasmids that produce Tli variants. (B) The indicated ECL inhibitor strains were mixed with ECL Δtle Δtli target cells and spotted onto LB-agar. After 4 h of co-culture, inhibitor and target cells were enumerated as colony forming units (cfu) on selective media. The competitive index equals the final ratio of inhibitor to target cells divided by the initial ratio. Presented data are the average ± standard error from three independent experiments. (C) Viable ECL Δtle Δtli target cell counts (cfu/mL) at 0 and 4 h for the cocultures shown in panel B. (D) Viable inhibitor cell counts (cfu/mL) at 0 and 4 h for the cocultures shown in panel B. (E) ECL inhibitor strains were mixed with E. coli X90 target cells and spotted onto LB-agar. Co-culture conditions and cfu enumerations were the same as described for panel B.