Fig 1.

Dcm contributes to GBS vaginal colonization and ascending infection. (A) Log2 fold changes of dcm from previously published (20) Tn-seq data of GBS colonization taken from vaginal swabs 1 and 3 d.p.i. or FRT tissues taken at 3 d.p.i. as compared to input. (B–F) 2 × 10⁷ CFU of WT or ∆dcm GBS were inoculated directly into the vaginal tract of CD-1 mice. Recovered CFU counts from vaginal lavage collected every other day (B) and the percentage of mice still colonized by each strain (C) are shown. On day 15, mice were euthanized, and the vagina (D), cervix (E), and uterus (F) were harvested, homogenized, and plated to enumerate CFU. Panel A shows mean fold changes from three biological replicates. Panels B–F are pooled data from two independent experiments. Each dot represents an individual mouse, and horizontal lines indicate the median. Statistical analysis: panel B: two-Way ANOVA. Panel C: Mantel-Cox log-rank test. Panels D–F: unpaired t-test.