FIG 5.

Respective transcriptional and posttranscriptional downregulation of emm expression in MGAS221^M− and 5448 Δsda1^M− strains and the contribution of the M protein, Mga regulon, and capsule to in vivo selection of MGAS2221 SpeB^A− variants. (A and B) Western blot detecting M protein production (A) and relative levels of hasA, scpA, and emm transcripts (B) in MGAS2221, MGAS2221 Δemm, MGAS2221^M−, MGAS2221^M−/pDCBB-mga, 5448 Δsda1^M−, and 5448 Δsda1^M−/pDCBB-mga strains. (C) SpeB^A−% of GAS isolates recovered from the skin infection sites of MGAS2221, MGAS2221 Δemm, MGAS2221^M−, MGAS2221^M−/pDCBB-mga, and MGAS2221 ΔhasA strains in C57BL/6J mice.