Fig 5.

Growth analysis of V. vulnificus wild-type strain CMCP6 and its nonpolar siaM deletion mutant strain JJK0731 in M9 minimal medium supplemented with glucose or N-acetylglucosamine (NAG) (A) or N-acetylneuraminic acid (sialic acid) (B). (A) Upper two lines with symbols of solid squares and circles indicate the growth pattern in M9 plus glucose, and the lower two are of M9 plus NAG. Plots are represented on natural log scale. OD, optical density. All cultures were grown in triplicate, and each experiment was performed at least twice using two biological replicates. Error bars indicate standard deviation. An unpaired Student t test was used to determine statistical difference between mutant strain cells and wild-type strain cells grown in N-acetylneuraminic acid (sialic acid). ***, P < 0.001.