FIG 2.

Nitrate assimilation and survival of M. tuberculosis strains in human monocytes and mice. (A) Strains were cultured in MB media with nitrate as the sole nitrogen source for NR-dependent assimilation and growth. The results shown are the means and standard deviations from three independent experiments. OD, optical density. (B) Growth of the ΔmobA mutant in human monocytes. The solid bar represents the wild type, open bars represent the ΔmobA mutant, and gray bars represent the genetically complemented derivative. Data are the means from experiments with 6 independent donors. (C) Survival of the ΔmobA mutant in the lungs of infected mice. Four animals per strain were used at day 0, and 5 animals per strain were used at all other time points. ■, wild type; ○, ΔmobA mutant; ●, ΔmobA attB::pMobA mutant.