Figure 3. Inconsistent effect of sagA deletion on emm expression was not related to the functionality of the covS gene in MGAS5005 and MGAS2221. (A) Relative levels of hasA mRNA in MGAS5005ΔsagA/pDCBB and MGAS5005ΔsagA/pCovSC. (B and C) Relative levels of emm transcript (A) and western blot detecting the production of the M protein (B) in the following strains: 1, MGAS5005; 2, MGAS5005ΔsagA; 3, MGAS5005ΔsagA/pCovSC; 4, MGAS5005ΔsagA/pDCBB; 5, MGAS2221; 6, MGAS2221ΔsagA-1; and 7, MGAS2221ΔsagAΔcovS. Levels of emm or hasA mRNA were normalized to that of corresponding control strain.