FIG 5.

The lcpD mutation diminishes the attachment of secondary cell wall polysaccharide (SCWP) to Bacillus anthracis peptidoglycan. (A) Equal amounts of purified murein sacculi from B. anthracis Sterne (wild type [WT] with empty vector) or its lcpD mutant carrying empty vector or complementing plasmid (plcpD) were treated with hydrofluoric acid, released SCWP was separated by SEC-HPLC, and absorbance was recorded at 206 nm (mAu). (B) SEC-HPLC peak sizes were measured (mAu²×10⁶) in triplicate from independent samples, and the average peak size and standard deviation were calculated. Comparison of SCWP abundance between strains with the two-tailed Student's t test was used to analyze statistically significant differences (*, P < 0.05).