Fig 5. Hemolytic activity is significantly increased in BAC-tolerant mutants.

To investigate the relationship between BAC tolerance and virulence, we conducted a hemolysis assay using mut-1, mut-2, and the parental strain. Percent hemolysis, which is a semi-quantitative proxy for the expression of key L. monocytogenes virulence factor listeriolysin O is reported. Error bars represent the standard deviation of percent hemolysis for each lineage. Statistically significant values between WT, mut-1 (p-value = 0.00093), and mut-2 (p-value = 0.012) are indicated by an asterisk.