Figure 2. Of the five B. thai T6SSs, only T6SS-5 is required for virulence in a murine acute melioidosis model.
C57BL/6 wild-type mice were infected by the aerosol-route with 105 c.f.u./lung of B. thai strains and monitored for survival for 10–14 days post infection (p.i.). Survival of mice after exposure to B. thai (A) wild-type and strains harboring gene deletions in individual T6SS gene clusters (n = 5 per group), (B) wild-type and a strain bearing an in-frame tssK-5 deletion (ΔtssK-5) or its complemented derivative (ΔtssK-5-comp; n = 7, 7 and 8, respectively), (C) or a strain with inactivating mutations in T6SS-5 or in four T6SSs (ΔT6SS-1,2,4,6; n = 6 and 8, respectively).