FIG. 7.
BatB is necessary for persistence in the lower respiratory tract of mice. (A) Construction of strains used. RBAT was created using allelic exchange to delete codons 4 to 2297 of batB from the chromosome of RB50. RBAT was complemented with plasmid pCW98, which, when integrated at the promoter region of batB in the RBAT chromosome, leaves the original deletion of batB and the genes downstream of the deletion unchanged. Suc, sucrose. (B) Three- to 4-week-old BALB/c mice were inoculated with 5 × 105 CFU of RB50 (black circles with solid black line), RBAT (gray triangles with dashed gray line), RBAT::pCW98 (gray circles with solid gray line), or RBatpp (black triangles with dashed black line). A dotted line indicates the lower limit of detection. An asterisk denotes a result different from that for RB50, with a P value of ≤ 0.05. Two asterisks denote a result that is significantly different from that for RB50, with a P value of ≤0.01. Two crosses indicate that the result is significantly different from that for RBAT, with a P value of ≤0.01. (C) RBatpp was created by deleting the same 1,593 nucleotides that are missing within batB of B. parapertussishu from the RB50 chromosome. (D) Outer membrane preparations of RB50, RBAT::pCW98, and RBAT were probed with anti-BatB antibody (α-BatB). (E) Outer membrane preparations of RB50, RBAT, RBatpp, and 12822 (Bpp) were probed with anti-BatB antibody.