Figure 4. Sex differences in S .

pyogenes nasopharyngeal carriage and shedding intensity in 5 week old mice. Male and female FVB/n mice 5 weeks (A, p>0.05 Mantel–Cox Logrank test, n = 10) of age were infected intranasally with emm75 S. pyogenes (1.1×10⁸ cfu) and sampled non-invasively through direct nasal sampling over 21 days. Shedding intensity maps display the data from direct nasal samples throughout the time course from the male mice (B) and the female mice (C). Rows indicate individual mice throughout the time course, colours indicate the numbers of S. pyogenes recovered from direct nasal samples with red indicating the highest recorded levels of carriage (≥5000 cfu) and green indicates the lowest levels of carriage (1 cfu) and blank blocks indicate no recovery of S. pyogenes. Black line indicates survival based on the first loss of carriage.