Fig 1. Growth of F. tularensis Schu S4, F. tularensis waaY::TrgTn and F. tularensis LVS in cultured human alveolar type II cells.

Immortalized primary AT-II tissue culture cells were used to perform gentamicin protection assays. The ability of the three Francisella strains to enter and replicate with these epithelial lung cells was measured after infecting at an MOI 100:1. Fold growth was calculated as the difference between the number of bacteria surviving gentamicin treatment at 4 hours and 24 hours post-infection. (A) Data are a single experiment representative of three separate experiments. (B) Data are an average of four independent experiments.