Fig 4.
Strain grouping by HRMA. Difference plots were obtained after a temperature shift on the normalized melting curves, using the curve for M. pseudoshottsii as a base curve. For clarity, the strain differentiation is displayed in 2 plots, one showing data for 5 groups (A) and one for 4 groups (B). This experiment was repeated 3 times independently and yielded exactly the same grouping results. When 2 species grouped together, they were differentiated by their Tms. This was the case for group 1 (M. marinum and M. gordonae), group 2 (M. phlei and M. pseudoshottsii), and group 3 (M. fortuitum and M. haemophilum). Refer to Table 3 for Tm values.