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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Nov 1.
Published in final edited form as: FEMS Microbiol Lett. 2014 Oct 1;360(1):1–8. doi: 10.1111/1574-6968.12602

Figure 2.

Figure 2

NTHI differentiation in response to fluctuations in nutritional availability. NTHI IBC formation is dependent upon the nutritional state at the time of infection. Continuously exposed to heme-iron (dark brown rods) form mat-like biofilms on the epithelial surface with limited intracellular development. In contrast, restricted for heme-iron (light brown rods) form a biofilm on the surface that has an open architecture containing filamentous NTHI. In addition, heme-iron restricted NTHI responded to nutritional limitation by forming IBCs within the epithelial cells.