FIG. 4.

Virulence of ΔrseB variants in s.c. inoculated iron-dextran-treated mice. (A) Mice were inoculated with 1,000 CFU of transparent variant FLA610-Tp (ΔrseB-Tp), translucent variant FLA610-Tl (ΔrseB-Tl), and opaque variant FLA610-O (ΔrseB-O) or these strains containing plasmid pGTR2005 encoding rseB (Tp-compl, Tl-comp, and O-comp). Five mice were used for each experiment. For complementation, the results of plating on nonselective media are shown (there was no statistical difference between the plate counts on selective and nonselective media). The numbers below the bars indicate the numbers of mice with detectable bacteria in skin or liver samples from five inoculated mice. The Bonferroni t test was used to compare each mutant to its corresponding complemented strain (*, P = 0.01; **, P = 0.008). (B) Scatter plot showing the results for four mouse infections (five mice each) with FLA610-O.