Figure 7. YfiN-mediated SCVs contribute to persistence in vitro and in vivo.

A) Tobramycin survival assay with PA01 wild type (open triangles) and ΔyfiR mutant (open circles). ΔyfiR suppressor colonies are shown as red circles. Statistically significant differences between PA01and ΔyfiR are marked with asterisks (** = p<0.01, * = p<0.05). B) Single infections with PA01 wild type (black symbols) and ΔyfiR mutant (open symbols). Catheter samples (circles) are presented as cfu/ml, tissue samples (squares) as cfu/mg tissue. Statistically significant differences are marked with an asterisk (* = p<0.05). C) Competition experiments with PA01 wild type and ΔyfiR mutant. The graph shows the ratio of wild type to ΔyfiR mutant colonies recovered from catheters (C, circles) and tissue (T, squares) after four and eight weeks, respectively. Values above 1 indicate greater numbers of wild type colonies, values below 1 greater numbers of SCVs.