Fig 3.

Chemotaxis allows H. pylori to grow more quickly in the antrum and provides an advantage in a competition infection. (A) Female FVB/N mice were infected with the SS1 wild type (solid line) or the isogenic Che⁻ mutant (dotted line) for 14 or 36 h. At each time point, stomachs were removed and divided into the corpus, the C-A transition zone, and the antrum and plated to determine the number of H. pylori. n = 8 or 9 for the wild type and the Che⁻ mutant for all time points, derived from two independent infections. Data are also shown in Table 1 and Fig. 2. (B) Competition experiments were carried out by infecting female FVB/N mice with a 1:1 ratio of the wild type and the Che⁻ mutant for 14 or 36 h. At each time point, stomachs were removed, divided, and plated as described for panel A. Black lines represent each strain in single infection, as described for panel A; gray lines indicate the strains in competition. n = 5 for the wild type and the Che⁻ mutant for all time points, derived from one experiment. Error bars represent standard error of the mean.